Father of France

Chapter 90 The last moments
The German high command's best chance of escape along the Swiss-Italian line had already been ensnared by the French army, leaving them with no chance of survival.

In just the past few days, they have intercepted more than a hundred Germans whose identities could not be verified. Koeman believes that most of them are refugees who are afraid of the war, but even so, these people cannot leave.

If there was really no suitable option, they would send them to the Rhine Camp. However, Koeman soon discovered that the Soviet Union's reputation was more effective than that of the Rhine Camp. When he mentioned handing them over to the Soviet army, a few who had escaped the trap actually came out.

Koeman also knew that the main force had not yet arrived, and that he should lie in wait in various parts of Germany until the situation calmed down before making his escape. "Once Berlin falls, your friends will probably show up in large numbers."

"Berlin is the capital of Germany, and it won't be so easy to take." General von Steiner's simple patriotism came into play at this moment, and he was unwilling to admit that the current German army was vulnerable.

“General von Steiner!” Koeman looked at him with pity and said lightly, “Time is really running out for Berlin. Given the current fundamental difference between the Soviet and German armies, Germany will be defeated and surrender within a month. The so-called Greater German Reich will return to dust and crumble like a building on sand.”

Koeman had no time to soothe the feelings of a prisoner. Although he gave General von Steiner a certain degree of freedom, it did not change the fact that the other party was a prisoner.

He had already prepared a report on the cooperation between Germany and local officials in Latin America, as well as the idea of ​​Swiss banks issuing gold coins, and submitted it to the First Army Headquarters on May 1st, International Workers' Day in many countries, while the Battle of Berlin had entered its most intense phase.

Just as the Führer was greeted with a thunderous welcome upon returning to Berlin after the fall of Paris in 1940, the capture of Berlin had at least the same, or even greater, significance for the Soviet Union.

No means proves a nation's power is greater than personally defeating a powerful nation.

Germany is not just any ordinary power; it possesses the world's strongest military, a fact widely acknowledged. Even the United States, which is fond of historical accounts, has almost never questioned Germany's fighting capabilities.

The moment Berlin, the capital of Germany, falls, a giant called the Soviet Union will rise from the ruins of Berlin.

At this moment, Berlin had lost all the splendor of the thousand-year-old empire envisioned by the Führer; the devastating Stalin Accordion had already reached the city center from the outer perimeter.

"Watch out for artillery fire!" the German sergeant shouted. The soldiers in the trenches immediately clutched their rifles, covered their heads with their hands, and crouched down. The next moment, a series of whistling sounds tore through the air, followed by a hail of cast iron shrapnel covering an area two hundred meters wide in front of the position.

"They're destroying the minefield, and all the barbed wire we set up is gone." The corporal spat as he bent down and shook the dirt off his helmet.

"On your positions, the Russians are attacking!" The sergeant major continued issuing orders; after the deputy platoon leader was killed, he became the highest-ranking officer in the trench.

It was 1945, not 1941. In their first encounter, the Soviet army fully demonstrated to them what a truly elite force was, what a battle-hardened army was.

The Soviet infantry broke through the first line of defense, which had been carefully constructed by the Germans, in just half an hour.

In just thirty minutes, the German defenders lost all their anti-tank weapons and nearly half their men. One infantry company, unable to retreat in time, was surrounded and annihilated by the Soviet forces on the position.

The remaining German troops then withdrew to the second line of defense to rest and regroup. The Soviet army also temporarily halted its advance and began to consolidate the positions it had just captured. Although the victory was brilliant, it was not without casualties. Under the fierce firepower of the German garrison, many brave Soviet soldiers fell on their way to the front.

Soldiers from both sides engaged in a chaotic exchange of fire across a 400-meter-wide patch of grass. Their primary objective was not to kill the enemy, but rather to increase psychological pressure on the opposing side and strengthen their mutual bonds.

Although the German soldiers showed extraordinary tenacity, they could not change the fact that the initiative had fallen into the hands of the enemy. They were tied down by the Russians, suffered heavy losses in weapons and manpower, and had no other options but to passively defend themselves.

To make matters worse, Soviet artillery cut the telephone line, cutting off their contact with higher command. The promised reinforcements were nowhere to be found.

The Soviet army didn't care what the Germans thought; after reorganizing its offensive forces, it immediately launched an assault on Berlin's second line of defenses. It was textbook perfect. After a preparatory artillery barrage, the full-scale attack commenced.

Before the smoke of battle had cleared, German soldiers were horrified to discover that Soviet T-34 tanks were already within arm's reach.

Behind the T-34 tanks were Soviet soldiers, battle-hardened after four years of bloody fighting. Crouching low, they moved silently and swiftly through the dust and smoke, not launching a rash frontal assault. Instead, they cut diagonally across the open ground in front of the positions, attacking the relatively weak flanks.

The German machine guns and mortars on the positions also began to fire continuously, suppressing the Soviet assault team that posed the greatest threat to their own infantry.

The Soviet PPSh-45s demonstrated their superior close-range firepower in the German trenches, and the German lines quickly collapsed along with their morale. Soldiers threw down their weapons and scrambled out of the trenches, fleeing towards the nearby town streets.

Having captured the outer defenses of Berlin, the Battle of Berlin officially entered the urban warfare phase.

The threat at this time came not only from the regular German army, but also from the Berlin citizens who had been incorporated into the Volkssturm. These ordinary people, who had joined the battlefield for their country, fought entirely on instinct. They had no combat experience and didn't even know what military orders were. All they could do was carry Panzerfaust rocket launchers, hide in the rubble, and then suddenly appear and fire the rockets from their shoulders.

Even the once-frequent broadcasts have fallen silent. Undercurrents are now swirling within the city, and pessimistic opinions are beginning to spread among the citizens. The hardliners have also quieted down and no longer jump around making grand pronouncements all the time.

The rhetoric advocating a bloody battle against the Soviet Union and the vow that the noble Germans would never surrender has vanished without a trace.

The final battle seemed to become a spontaneous struggle, with those who believed in the National Socialist Party joining the battle without needing mobilization, while those who stood by indifferently remained unmoved, seemingly having lost all their spirit.

The slogan "For the Fatherland! For Stalin!" became the loudest sound on the streets of Berlin.

With that shout, five or six Red Army soldiers rushed out of the basement entrance, the one in the lead holding a PPSh-41 submachine gun high. They had barely run ten meters when machine gun bullets swept through like sickles, cutting the two in the front in half.

The soldiers behind him were splattered with their comrades' blood, but they continued to charge until they were killed by a second wave of bullets.

Mortar shells whistled down around the German machine gun positions, kicking up clouds of dust. Flamethrowers instantly engulfed the machine gun nests. Screams erupted from the burning windows as a German soldier, engulfed in flames, stumbled and fell into the street, quickly riddled with bullets.

As the body fell from the window, Soviet soldiers went over to check. It was a blond boy, not yet twenty, wearing a German Youth uniform, and clutching a Mauser rifle with a scope.

There were not many high-ranking German officials left in Berlin. Himmler, Göring, and the Führer's comrades had left before the Battle of Berlin began, using one excuse or another.

I wonder if they have escaped to a safe place, whether they are going to surrender or lie low for the time being?

Goebbels, the propaganda minister, eventually became the Berlin defense chief, leading the German troops and soldiers in Berlin in the decisive battle against the Soviet Red Army.

Goebbels and his wife, along with their six unborn children, were in an underground bunker. The bunker was trembling slightly. By this time, the Soviet artillery could no longer be ignored.

Before the Soviet troops entered Berlin, the Führer made his last public appearance, meeting with members of the Youth League to encourage these young people to fight to the end.

But soon, when it was just the two of them, Goebbels heard the Führer, who had led Germany like a comet, speak of defeat for the first time.

In Goebbels' memory, this was the first time he had felt this way. At this moment, Goebbels no longer had the confidence he had at the 1943 General Mobilization Conference, and even the desperate roars he had made at the final battle conference two months earlier were gone.

Now he is as peaceful as a saint, and even the faint sound of cannons cannot disturb him.

“Magda, I have never regretted it,” Goebbels said to his wife Magda, “neither for you nor for the country, but we must consider what to do in the end.”

Magda, of course, knew what Goebbels was thinking, and calmly said, "Death is not the end, but the next cycle of reincarnation."

Magda even had a smile on her lips, the kind of fervent smile that Goebbels had seen at countless mass rallies, a smile that was permanently captured on camera.

The German high command is rife with mystical worship and projects in the Himalayas. Magda is quite unique in this context, as she is a devout Buddhist.

His views on death were completely different from others, and he never had any fear of death.

“My dear, we have time to say a proper goodbye.” Goebbels embraced his wife with a devout smile, his eyes showing only indifference, utterly devoid of fear of death.

By this point, the marching route was completely useless. The enemy was rushing in from all directions, and comrades or enemies could appear from any direction. Gunfire rang out in every area. People didn't know why they were fighting, but they just wanted to fight.

Goebbels looked at his wife and children with tenderness in his eyes. He didn't know when the curtain call would be, but... soon, very soon.

The propaganda minister, who had repeatedly warned the German people that a major event was coming, knew that this time the event was truly imminent.

(End of this chapter)