Battle of Berlin
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The Battle of Berlin was the climactic battle of World War II in Europe. Fought between the Soviet Union and the ailing forces of the Third Reich, it represented the last stand of the Nazis in their own capital city of Berlin.
History
Origins
Roots
The roots of the Battle of Berlin could be traced back to Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1941. The offensive moved at a staggering pace, with the Germans advancing hundreds of miles in a matter of days and capturing thousands of Russian prisoners of war. However, by December, the onset of the harsh winter drove the offensive to a halt and they were fought back outside Moscow. This setback cost Germany the initiative in the war. (PROSE: Just War)
After reorganising in 1942, the Germans turned their attention towards the city of Stalingrad. (AUDIO: The Night Witches) They reached Stalingrad that autumn and laid siege to the city which lasted throughout a second harsh winter, (PROSE: The Beast of Stalingrad) stretching on into 1943 and claiming the lives of a million Russian defenders. (PROSE: Happy Endings) The Sixth Doctor had told Adolf Hitler on the eve of the battle that the victor of Stalingrad would "win the war". Indeed, for the victorious Russians, Stalingrad taught many valuable lessons about close-quarter city fighting that were later to be put to great use. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)
Preparations
By 1944, the Third Reich was on the retreat on both the Western and Eastern Fronts. Some of the senior Nazis began to realise that Germany was losing the war. In August, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann began secretly stockpiling huge amounts of financial resources for use by the Reich even in the even of defeat (Operation Eagle Flight). In September, Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler ordered the Nazi death camps to be shut down but his instructions were ignored. Nevertheless, Himmler still invested hopes of eventual victory though mysticism and occult rituals. In particular, he was banking on the arrival of supernatural forces he believed he had witnessed in visions shown to him by the Scrying Glass. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)
By the beginning of 1945, the German offensive in the Ardennes region of Belgium collapsed, (PROSE: Autumn Mist, The Turing Test) opening Germany up to invasion by the British and Americans, (PROSE: Made of Steel) who at this point were racing the Russians across Germany due to the early onset of the Cold War. (PROSE: Cabinets of Curiosities) The Allied leaders, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin Roosevelt, all gathered at Yalta to discuss the post-war partitioning of Europe. (PROSE: Byzantium!)
The Germans attempted to fight back with the V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets launched against Britain the previous year. Though destructive, they were unable to bring the Western Allies into submission. The Seventh Doctor noted that German rocketry research was far in advance of anything their enemies were capable of and may still have proved decisive even so late in the conflict. However, the Allies overran the rocket sites, ending the threat. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) Since landing in France on D-Day, the Western Allies intended to march on to Berlin. (AUDIO: Scorched Earth) However, the Soviets got there first. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)
Last stand
The Soviet advance on Berlin
On the Eastern Front, Marshal Georgi K Zhukov led the Soviets on the hard-fought advance to Berlin and effectively sealed off the city. To shelter from the coming onslaught, the Nazi leadership retreated to the safety of the Führerbunker beneath the Reichschancellery. Those involved included: Hitler; Himmler; Bormann; Hermann Goering with his wife and six children; Joseph Goebbels with his wife Magda and their six children; Albert Speer; Hermann Fegelein and his wife Gretl; Otto Gunsche; Hitler's valet Heinz Linge; Hitler Youth leader Arthur Axmann; together with Hitler's beloved Alsatian Blondi and other Nazis.
On 15 April, Hitler's girlfriend and Gretl's sister Eva Braun joined them in the Bunker. For many Nazis, Eva's arrival was a sign that their days were numbered, with many referring to her as "The Angel of Death".
On 20 April, Hitler celebrated his 56th birthday. This was the last day Hitler was known to have spent time outside the Bunker, as he refused suggestions that he flee Berlin to Southern Germany. He looked almost 20 years older than he actually was. A physical wreck and a far cry from his condition at the height of Nazi power, the Führer was suffering badly from Parkinson's disease. His left arm shook uncontrollably and he was constantly taking several different medications, including strychnine and cocaine. Goebbels ordered that the Führer only be filmed and photographed from certain angles to hide his frailty. Hitler addressed the Hitler Youth Brigade, preparing them to defend Berlin. Despite the inevitability of the Reich's defeat, Hitler continued to order military operations to proceed. Himmler, once Hitler's closest and most trusted ally, saw the insanity in this and left the Bunker during the sombre birthday party, never to return. He sought to begin secret negotiations with the Allies in order to sue for peace. However, he chose to make his escape in the uniform of a Sergeant Major of the Gestapo and was made an Allied prisoner. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)
On 22 and 23 April, the Soviets reached the outskirts of Berlin. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass, Just War, AUDIO: Just War) Hitler declared "All is lost," and made clear his intention to commit suicide. He showed signs of both emotional and physical breakdown. Eva Braun expressed her intention to kill herself with him, but in fact planned to escape, as she was secretly pregnant with Hitler's child. Hitler tested cyanide pills on Blondi. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)
Battle in Berlin
Berlin became the centre of ferocious fighting as the Red Army painfully pushed forward in a costly advance towards the Reichschancellery. German and Soviet artillery tore apart streets and buildings in murderous exchanges highly reminiscent of the fighting at Stalingrad — the Russians' experience of close-quarter city fighting gained in that battle was readily put to use against the German capital. So desperate was the German situation that the Soviets found themselves battling against children in the Hitler Youth so young that they were dressed in ill-fitting uniforms. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass) The age of conscription had been reduced to as low as ten years. (PROSE: Just War)
Jack Harkness fought in Berlin after falling in with a platoon of Commandos clearing the Nazis out of the city. The fighting was house to house with the Nazis "hiding like rats" and putting up a hard fight when cornered. (PROSE: The Undertaker's Gift)
The Treasure of Priam, held in Berlin, disappeared from the city during the battle. (PROSE: Past Reckoning)
On 24 April, Albert Speer left the Bunker and was later brought into Allied captivity.
On 25 April, the Soviets captured Tempelhof Airport, the main airport of Berlin, and advanced on the inner ring of the city, known as the Zitadelle. The area designated by the Russian generals as Sector Nine held the government buildings, including the Reichschancellery. The soldiers began hunting for Hitler, spurred on by rumours that whoever found him would be proclaimed a Hero of the Soviet Union.
Himmler ordered his Tibetan occultist followers to sacrifice themselves in mystic rituals in order to conjure forth the forces shown by the Scrying Glass to fight for the Reich. Dressed in German uniforms, groups of Tibetans took cyanide pills in various locations around the city but Himmler had misread the visions (the Glass only sought to be returned to its ship) and nothing happened. Captain Yazov's Soviet troops, among them Ilya Petrova, found the corpses of seven Tibetans in a cellar after fighting their way through inner-Berlin streets with flamethrowers. Unaware of their purpose, the Soviets mistook them for Chinese or Japanese troops in the German Army, but a Mongolian soldier known as Vlad identified them as Tibetan. By the end of the same day, Yazov was dead.
Pressured by Bormann, Hitler declared Goering a traitor. Bormann and Goebbels remained the only Nazi Party leaders to maintain their loyalty to Hitler. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)
On 28 April, the same day Italy's Benito Mussolini was executed, (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) Hitler found out about Himmler's secret surrender negotiations and branded him a traitor. He had Fegelein, one of Himmler's closest aides, executed for attempting to leave the Bunker.
On 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun. Goebbels was sent out into the streets of Berlin to find an official to conduct the ceremony. Eva signed her name on the marriage certificate as "Eva Hitler". Afterwards, Hitler dictated his Will and Political Testament to a secretary. Denouncing both the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe for their failure, he named the highest ranking Kriegsmarine commander, Admiral Donitz, as his successor, and blamed the start of the war on a Jewish conspiracy. In the afternoon, Joseph and Magda Goebbels held a party for their six children.
The death of Hitler
On the morning of 30 April, Eva visited the garden of the Reichschancellery for the final time. Hitler and Eva then made their formal farewells in the main corridor of the Bunker. By some accounts, it was still morning, but the farewells were made after lunch. If a nearby clock tower was still working, it indicated that the fateful events took place at around 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
The Sixth Doctor, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and Claire Aldwych were forced to travel back to the bunker on that day by Adolf Hitler, Jr. and his bodyguard Hanne Neumann so Hitler Jr. could meet his father. After an escape, the Brigadier apprehended and killed Neumann using some of the leftover cyanide pills used on Blondi. Claire returned outside to the TARDIS.
The Doctor, the Brigadier and Hitler Jr. then met Hitler as Bormann escorted the Führer to his rooms. Hitler recognised the time travellers as Major-General Johann Schmidt of the Fifth Medical Corps and Brigadier-General Braun from the Eastern Front (having met them in August 1942) and assumed they had come to pay their final respects. Hitler Jr. presented himself as Hitler's son, which his father scarcely believed and thought his unknown visitor to be an over-enthusiastic follower. Hitler Jr. pleaded for his news about the visions in the Scrying Glass to be heard and, manipulated by a subtle hint from the Doctor, suggested they seek Himmler's advice. At the mention of Himmler, Hitler flew into a rage, castigating all the time, effort and resources wasted by the treacherous Reichsführer on mystic projects when Germany should have been seeking to modernise. The endorsement of Himmler by Hitler Jr. had lost him any standing he may have had with his father.
Eva Braun entered and Hitler Jr. appealed to her. However, neither of them believed he was who he said he was. Hitler shot Hitler Jr. in the head which left blood on the bed behind him. The shot was heard by some people in the bunker, including Heinz Linge. Overhearing a mutter from the Brigadier, Hitler ordered Bormann to dump the body in the water tower.
Linge and Otto Gunsche were instructed to turn away anyone who tried to see them. A hysterical Magda Goebbels tried to speak with Hitler in the hopes of convincing him to spare his life, meaning she and her family would not have to kill themselves as well. She managed to speak to him despite the security but was unsuccessful in her plea. Arthur Axmann also tried to have some final words with Hitler, but he was unsuccessful in gaining an audience.
Claire witnessed Bormann's disposal of the body of Hitler Jr. in the water tower. A journalist native to a future time period who had studied this event, she began to piece together the missing information she had learned while in the company of the Doctor. The garden suddenly came under fire from Soviet artillery and Bormann, noticing Claire, ushered her inside. He caught her and then threw her into the path of one of the shells which left a crater in the garden. Claire survived but Bormann forced a cyanide pill into her mouth and clamped her teeth shut, killing her.
Hitler and Eva finally locked themselves in their room and sat down, both holding a gun and a cyanide pill. Hitler bit down on his pill and shot himself in the mouth at the same time. The bullet shot out of his head. Eva did not use her gun, only taking medication with knocked her unconscious, but she appeared dead as if she had taken the cyanide. However, she and Bormann both knew that she was pregnant and had made arrangements to save the child for the future of the Reich. Secretly aware of this, the Doctor pronounced both Hitler and Eva dead. Bormann made to dispose of both of their bodies.
The Doctor and Brigadier left the bunker and observed Bormann from a distance as he placed Eva's bodies in the crater. As they expected, Eva regained consciousness and unwrapped herself from the blankets and hid in a group of trees by the wall. Bormann rearranged the blanket with a double, whom the Doctor and Brigadier believed to be Hanne Naumann. After the corpse was prepared, other soldiers arrived with Hitler. The bodies were doused with specially-kept petrol and set alight. After the area was cleared, the time travellers investigated only to discover that Eva's double was in fact Claire.
Eva, Bormann and another man secretly boarded a plane in the Tiergarten and were flown out of Berlin by Hans Baur. The plane landed in Hamburg where Eva and Bormann boarded a submarine which departed for Neuschwabenland, before the British Army advancing in the region reached the city. Baur was captured by the Allies after the British arrived.
Joseph and Magda Goebbels murdered their own children and killed themselves shortly after. General Hans Krebs also died. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)
Surrender
German resistance quickly collapsed in the days following Hitler's death and surrender beckoned. In London on 30 April, the fall of Berlin was imminently anticipated. This was a crushing blow for Arthur Seaton, a supporter of Oswald Mosley. (PROSE: Rise of the Dominator)
The Western Allies' marked victory over Germany on 8 May 1945, known as VE Day. A major celebration took place in Trafalgar Square in London. (PROSE: Magic of the Angels) Churchill appeared alongside the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace where he addressed the nation. He told the British people that victory in Europe was their victory. (AUDIO: Churchill Victorious) The celebrations lasted into the night. (AUDIO: Casualties of War)
For the Soviets, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel met with Marshal Zhukov on 9 May and signed the documents of Germany's unconditional surrender, signalling the complete destruction of the Third Reich. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)
Although the war in Europe was over, the war with Japan continued until 2 September. (COMIC: Sky Jacks)
Aftermath
Many of the senior Nazis who fell into Allied captivity were put on trial for war crimes at Nuremberg between 1945 and 1946. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) Among the accused were Himmler, who committed suicide before his trial, and Speer, who was the only one to plead guilty. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)
Berlin was partitioned between the victorious powers, with the British, Americans, Soviets and French all controlling their own quarters. The city was eventually organised into East Berlin and West Berlin, separated by the Berlin Wall. A similar partition occurred to Germany as a whole, which was divided into East Germany and West Germany. (PROSE: Ancient Whispers, AUDIO: Protect and Survive) Soviet rule in the East remained harsh, with the Stasi constantly seeking to repress dissent. (AUDIO: The Anachronauts, The Shadow Vortex) The Austrian capital of Vienna was similarly partitioned, (AUDIO: Quicksilver) as were large swathes of Eastern and Western Europe. (PROSE: Endgame)
By January 1948, the Allies were airdropping supplies to the people of Berlin due to the Soviet refusal to provide them. Much of the city was still awaiting reconstruction. The district of Charlottenburg, which fell under British jurisdiction, became a base for British Intelligence. One of their research centres were set up in a house previously owned by a high-ranking Schutzstaffel official. Berliners, for their part, appeared defeated and as such were resigned to whatever future their occupiers bestowed upon them. Edward Grainger opined that only after they realised the consequences of Germany's actions would they be granted self-determination once more. (PROSE: Ancient Whispers)
Conspiracy theories
The events in the Führerbunker remained shrouded in mystery for many years, as the Soviets captured many of the witnesses and refused to release the recorded information from their archives following the beginning of the Cold War. Hans Baur, for example, was wounded and captured by the British after the flight to Hamburg. He was interrogated by the Americans on 14 July 1945 and gave his testimony revealing the existence of Nazi body doubles. He later entered Russian captivity and his testimony was claimed to be an American fabrication.
For decades, the most complete account was Hugh Trevor-Roper's report The Last Days of Hitler, which he was commissioned to write by the Western Allies. It was published in 1947.
A number of holes in the story remained and gave rise to numerous conspiracy theories, most notably those which claimed Hitler was still alive and in hiding. In reality, Hitler body, and those buried with him, were reinterred several times by the Soviets before they were finally incinerated, although fragments of Hitler's jaw bones were retained. This information was stored in the Russian archives under the informal title of Operation Myth, and the documents were finally released from the archives circa 1997, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. On 12 August 1997, Claire Aldywich's documentary, The Last Days of Hitler?, aired on the Conspiracy Channel. Using newly-released Russian documents, it pieced together parts of the previously-fragmented story for the first time, although it still raised other questions it felt had not yet received adequate explanation.
While most were unfounded, some of the reported sightings of Hitler could be attributed to Adolf Hitler, Jr., who bore a huge resemblance to his father. Born sometime after his mother's escape from Germany, he was raised to venerate his father and lead Neo-Nazi cells towards the establishment of the Fourth Reich under the guidance and administrative support of Martin Bormann, until the death of the elderly Reichsleiter circa 2001. Hitler Jr. encountered the Sixth Doctor, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Claire Aldwych that year, leading to the course of events which brought them all to the Führerbunker on 30 April 1945, where two of them met their demise.
The Scrying Glass was recovered from the Nazis by the Doctor and the Brigadier after this incident and returned to its rightful place aboard the Vvormak ship. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)
Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline in which Hitler was able to use the power of the Timewyrm to defeat Britain in 1940, the victorious Reich had Berlin rebuilt into New Berlin in an ambitious project headed by Albert Speer. Construction was still underway by 1951. Many prisoners of war and slave labourers had been brought from the conquered nations to work on the city, and many artistic works and artefacts deemed to be of significant worth were transported to Berlin for display in the Adolf Hitler Museum. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)
In the history in which the Ironsides were never discovered by the Eleventh Doctor, Allied forces marched on Berlin and broke the Nazi stranglehold with the assistance of the Ironsides only two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, before the summer of 1942. (PROSE: The Ironside Advance)
Parallel universes
On Germania I, the Terra Optimus among the worlds of Germania, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun celebrated the birth of their son, August Hitler, on 30 April 1945.
The different Germania worlds eventually united to form the Greater German Reich to battle the Empire of Empires, their Roman Empire equivalent based throughout the worlds of Roma. By 1970, the Roman legions invaded Germania I and pushed on to Berlin after victory at the Battle of the Rhine I.
On August Hitler's 25th birthday, the Third Air Legion dropped explosives on the dome of the Great Hall, which collapsed the next day. The Romans entered Berlin on 3 May and General Wilding surrendered on 10 May.
The Nazi defeat effectively spelled the end for the Greater German Reich, which was subsumed into the Empire of Empires, although the Divide between Germania and Roma was sealed and August Hitler was able to escape to the "True Earth". Marcus Americanius Scriptor hunted him down and killed him in Brazil in 1989. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia)
Behind the scenes
In the historical note included with The Shadow in the Glass, Stephen Cole and Justin Richards clarify that while much of the novel, including the fighting in Berlin and its aftermath, was based on real-life documented evidence, a number of aspects — aside from the obvious science-fiction elements and "speculative nonsense" — were naturally fictionalised for story purposes. Point addressed include:
- Hitler's mysterious double whose body was discovered in the water tower was likely Gustav Weler, a Reichchancellery employee who had previously worked as a double for Hitler. In the novel, it is Adolf Hitler, Jr.
- Hans Baur was never a prisoner of the Americans and his testimony was made up for the novel. In real life, the Russians considered him unreliable. This was the only historical documentation made up for the story.
- Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger pronounced Hitler an Eva Braun dead. In the novel, it is the Doctor, as "Major-General Johann Schmidt".
- Martin Bormann died before he could escape Berlin. His body, alongside that of Stumpfegger, was discovered in West Berlin in 1972, ending years of rumours that they had successfully fled.
Additionally, the novel reveals that the skull fragments believed to belong to Hitler are indeed his. However, in the years following its 2001 release, the remains were discovered not to belong to Hitler at all but to an unidentified woman. This was acknowledged in the 2015 re-release for The History Collection.
No in-universe source has used the term "Battle of Berlin", but it is clear from Just War and, to a far greater extent, The Shadow in the Glass that a battle took place in the city.
