Germanica

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The Nazi retreat to a fortress in the Bavarian Alps in 1945 never really happened. It was seriously considered by those in the German high command who wanted to go on fighting, either in Germany or elsewhere, or those who didn’t want to die in Berlin. But Hitler forbade it. The Allied command was divided about the seriousness of the threat. Some were concerned that a large German army holed up in the mountains would be almost impossible to root out without incurring large numbers of American casualties, while others thought that the whole idea was a fantasy. This worry impacted on Allied strategy, including having some influence on the decision to not send the U.S. Army to take Berlin ahead of the Russians. Instead, the Allies concentrated on cutting off large numbers of Germans, thus keeping them from reaching their presumed mountain sanctuary. Berlin was left to the Russians. They took it after desperate and bloody fighting and then savaged the town and the city’s population in an orgy of rape and murder. Hitler died in the ruins and his remains were taken by the Russians where they kept them hidden for decades.

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