Apocalypse_The_Fall_of_Hitler.
The defeat in the Battle of Kursk and the fact that in 1943 the Allied forces opened a second front in Sicily was the reason why Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was forced to divide his forces between the East and the West, which meant a break in the course of the war, reports the “National Geographic” channel. .
Not being able to recover after the Battle of Kursk, in 1944 the German army suffered a defeat on both the Western and Eastern fronts. As they fled, the German soldiers hurriedly tried to destroy the evidence of their heinous crimes. But they did not manage to completely hide the grim reality of the death camps.
On the other hand, shortly before the decisive events of the Second World War, Hitler and his close circle lived in their “bubble” and were busy planning the wedding of Gretl, the younger sister of the Führer’s wife, Eva Braun.
The program “Apocalypse: The Downfall of Hitler“, which will premiere on Tuesday, December 12, at 22.00, will tell both about the summer of 1943, when the Führer still hoped for a successful outcome of the Second World War, and about the events of 1944, when it became clear to everyone that the German army would lose this war.
While waiting for the premiere of the program, the “National Geographic” channel invites you to take a look at the events that not only changed the course of the Second World War, but also brought the world closer to the end of the Führer’s rule.
The battle that decided the fate of World War II
The Battle of Kursk was the last time in World War II that German Army forces launched a strategic offensive against the Red Army. Although the Wehrmacht was weakened after the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, it still had sufficient forces on the Eastern Front to carry out the operation.
Namely, already in the spring of 1943, the Soviet government received information that Hitler’s gradually concentrates forces at the Kursk circle. This operation, which took place in July 1943, was called “Citadel” by the Wehrmacht.
At that time, completely new armored vehicles “Panther” and “Tiger”, which the Führer had been waiting for a long time, were finally brought to the Ukrainian border in Kursk, as well as heavy tank destroyers “Elefant”, for which this battle was the first baptism of fire.
The combat vehicles were ready to destroy the Soviet forces. The Wehrmacht concentrated three armies for the attack, in which there were a total of 780 thousand soldiers, almost half of which were planned to be involved in direct combat.
The Red Army, in preparation for the battle, attracted more than 300,000 civilian workers, who in a short time built eight fortified defense belts, the total defense depth of which was several hundred meters. The Red Army had almost two million soldiers on three fronts.
Thus began the largest tank battle in the world so far, which went down in history as the Battle of Kursk. However, the German attempt to change the course of the war failed. In general, the defeat of the Germans in the Battle of Stalingrad and later in the Battle of Kursk marked an absolute shift of the initiative on the side of the Soviet Army, henceforth the Germans on the Eastern Front no longer carried out strategic attacks, switching to defense. Just then, the Allied forces also opened a second front in Sicily, forcing Hitler to split his forces between east and west.
Hitler and Braun’s younger sister
In June 1944, the Führer’s closest circle was busy with the sisters of Hitler’s wife Eva Braun (1912-1945) Gretl (1915-1987) and the wedding celebration of SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein (1906-1945). The celebration took place in Salzburg, Mirabell Palace, and the wedding was witnessed by both the Führer himself and his associates Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) and Martin Bormann (1900-1945).
Gretl Braun, who was three years younger than Hitler’s spouse, met the Führer in the early 1930s while working with the famous photographer Heinrich Hoffmann with her older sister Eva. It should be noted that he later became Hitler’s personal photographer and public image smith. Gretl left school at the age of 16 and was soon hired as one of Hoffman’s assistants.
In August 1935, the Führer bought the Braun sisters a three-room apartment, while the following year, Eva and Gretl also got a luxurious villa in Bogenhausen. Both sisters fell in love with photographyand Gretl even studied at the Bavarian School of Photography in 1943.
Führer, as is known, was obsessed with a healthy lifestyle, which he tried to convert both his wife Eva and her three-year-younger sister. It is known that for a month without cigarettes, the Führer promised to gift the girls with Swiss gold watches or jewelry. Eva won the bet and got the prize, but Gretl didn’t.
To encourage the young woman to quit smoking, the Führer promised Gretl a villa as a gift. To which she replied: “My Führer, I would be very happy with a villa, but that would be only one pleasure for me, whereas cigarettes give me twenty little pleasures a day, that satisfaction is long-lasting”.
Gretl spent a lot of time with Eva at Hitler’s Berghof residence in the Bavarian Alps, where she amused herself by smoking and flirting with SS officers. She developed a serious crush on Hitler’s SS adjutant Fritz Darges, but after a careless comment at a meeting, the Führer fired her and put her in command of a unit on the Eastern Front.
But Gretl did not grieve for too long and already On June 3, 1944, he got married with SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein, who was Heinrich Himmler’s liaison officer at Hitler’s headquarters. Fegelein had a reputation as a brunch hunter and also had extramarital affairs after his wedding. It is known that Hitler would have wanted Gretl to marry Heinrich Hochmann’s son Heinz, but this was not destined to happen.
It should be noted that shortly before the end of the Second World War, on April 28, 1945, Fegelin was arrested as a deserter and shortly thereafter was shot down on Hitler’s orders. It should be added that the Führer himself had only two days left to live. Namely, the next day, in 1945, he married Eva Braun, while on April 30, both committed suicide.
Unlike her sister, Gretl Brown not only survived World War II, but lived for more than 40 years. On February 6, 1954, she married Kurt Berlingoff in Munich. She died at the age of 72 on October 10, 1987 in Bavaria.
On the other hand, three days after the wedding of Gretl and Herman, in June 1944, the Allied forces landed on the coast of Normandy. It was a day that went down in history as “D-Day” and allowed the liberation of France and all of Western Europe from Nazi Germany to begin.
For Hitler, this Allied landing was unexpected, which proves that all German predictions were wrong. Although almost a year will pass until May 1945, it has already become clear that the fate of the Führer and the Third Reich is inevitably doomed to failure.
Kill the Führer
On July 20, 1944, Hitler had managed to escape another assassination attempt, the organizers of which were high-ranking Wehrmacht officers led by Klaus von Stauffenberg. He planned to kill the Führer by detonating an explosive hidden in a briefcase.
It should be noted that the plan to overthrow the Führer was born in 1938, but indecision and the events taking place in the world hindered the actions of the conspirators. It wasn’t until 1943, after Germany lost the Battle of Stalingrad and Soviet forces began to advance on Germany, that they finally realized it was high time to act.
The plan was carried out, but in the end Hitler was slightly wounded. Meanwhile, other members of the conspiracy, thinking that the Führer was dead, staged a failed coup attempt. It should be noted that the Führer, especially at the end of his life, was extremely superstitious and considered his escape a sign of good luck.
These and other events will be told in the program “Apocalypse: The Fall of Hitler”, which will premiere on Tuesday, December 12, at 22.00 on “National Geographic” channel.
About National Geographic Global Channel
“National Geographic” (NG) is available to 440 million households in 171 countries of the world in 45 languages. NG together with “Nat Geo WILD”, “Nat Geo People” and “Nat porsGeo MUNDO” form the channel group “The National Geographic” – they are part of “National Geographic Partners”, a joint venture between “21st Century Fox” and ” National Geographic Society”. NG has more than 55 million social media fans on Facebook alone. In Latvia, NG with subtitles in Latvian and Russian is available “Tet”, “Baltcom”, “Elektrons S”, “Livas KTV”, “Namsamnieks”, “Balticom”, “MITS”, “LAT”, “Dautkom”, “Ostkom “, “Elektrons”, “Telenet”, “Elektrons & K”, “Eikatik”, “Smart-TV” and “V20” television subscribers.
Tija Ezeriņa, “Public ID”
2023-12-12 09:19:14
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