In March 1945 the American and British
armies crossed the Rhine. During April they
passed well beyond the military demarcation
zones agreed at Yalta. Suspicion of Russian inten-
tions was high and Churchill urged that the
Anglo-American forces should withdraw only
when the Russians had fulfilled their undertak-
ings. It had been agreed that Berlin, although
deep within the Russian zone of Germany, should
be occupied jointly by the US, Britain and the
Soviet Union, as well as France. But would the
Soviets, once they had taken Berlin, honour their
obligations?
The final Soviet offensives began in January
- Hitler ordered fanatical resistance on all
fronts and the adoption of a ‘scorched earth’ pol-
icy. If Germany were not victorious, he concluded,
the German people had not proved themselves
worthy of the ideals of the Aryan race. He thus
condemned Germany to senseless destruction.
1
THE VICTORY OF THE ALLIES, 1941–5 297
Bremerhaven
BRITISH ZONE SOVIET ZONE
Lübeck
US Control
Hamburg
Rostock
Stettin
Königsberg
Breslau
Prague
NORTH
SEA DENMARK
LUX.
EAST PRUSSIA
Polish Adminstered
Area
POLAND
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
HUNGARY
N
ET
H
E
R
LA
N
D
S
Russian
Adminstered
R.Elbe
R.E
lbe
R.
Od
er
Ne
iss
e
R.
(W
es
ter
n)
Po
lis
h
Ad
m
in
ist
er
ed
Ar
ea R.
Od
er
R. (Eastern)
Neisse
Bremen
Brunswick Magdeburg
Berlin
R.
W
es
er
Leipzig
Cologne Dresden
Frankfurt
Nürnberg
Karlsruhe
Stuttgart
Freiburg
Bern
Munich
Klagenfurt
Salzburg
Innsbruck
Mainz
R.
Rh
ine
FREN
CH
FRANCE
SWITZERLAND
AUSTRIA
R.Danu
ZO be
NE
L. Constance
FRENCH ZONE
US ZONE
BRITISH
ZONE
Boundaries of zones
National frontiers
R.V
istula
SO
VIE
TZ
ONE
Vienna
The occupation zones of Germany and Austria, 1945
