April 26, 1945 – NBC News Of The World – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
April 26, 1945 – news of the war and news that Berlin was capitulating fast. 3/4 of the city was now under Russian occupation, while sporadic fighting continued in some streets while cleanup was already starting in others. News from Italy of the German Army in retreat and that Italian Partisans were taking their toll on fleeting German troops and had re-captured the towns of Genoa, Milan and Turin. Also, news that Mussolini had been captured while trying to seek refuge at a Monastery in Como, Italy brought a sigh of relief to many.
General Eisenhower invited members of Congress to visit the newly liberated Concentration Camps, as grim testimony of war crimes perpetuated by the Germany Army.
German propaganda was still working overtime – the latest reports told of a “Hitler Lookalike” who had been brought to Berlin to appear in the final fighting and to die while the “real Hitler” had escaped to conduct the war in another location. The reports went on to name the unlucky imposter as August Wilhelm Bartholdy, former Grocer.
When the Soviet offensive resumed on 16 April, two Soviet fronts (army groups) attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin. Before the main battle in Berlin commenced, the Red Army encircled the city after successful battles of the Seelow Heights and Halbe. On 20 April 1945, Hitler’s birthday, the 1st Belorussian Front led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, advancing from the east and north, started shelling Berlin’s city centre, while Marshal Ivan Konev’s 1st Ukrainian Front broke through Army Group Centre and advanced towards the southern suburbs of Berlin. On 23 April General Helmuth Weidling assumed command of the forces within Berlin. The garrison consisted of several depleted and disorganised Army and Waffen-SS divisions, along with poorly trained Volkssturm and Hitler Youth members. Over the course of the next week, the Red Army gradually took the entire city.
The Americans and British were scoring big gains too. In the north, the 2nd Army captured Bremen. In the South, General Patton‘s 3rd Army crossed the Danube at three points, almost encircling Regensburgh, while Munich was neariing capitulation. The French 1st Army completed the envelopment of the Black Forest by driving up to the Swiss front.
Former Hero of World War 1, the now-disgraced Marshall Petain surrendered to French officers on a charge of High Treason. The Marshall and his party were to be taken on a special train to Paris where he would be placed in custody to await trial. In Paris, it was announced by the Prosecution that Clemency would be asked for Petain on the grounds of humanity and his advanced age.
And that was a little of what was going on, this fast-paced news day of April 26, 1945 as reported by NBC News Of The World.
