European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 06, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The final inferno continued from Page 15 getting any of it on them. We did t know they kept repeating. The death factories Are too much even for hardened veterans of hand to hand killing to stomach increasingly in Western newspapers appearing among the Bright race to Victory bulletins came the Darker flashes allies enraged by nazi  suddenly on april 12, the Fuhrer brightens. Franklin d. Roosevelt is dead. The death of the american president sends the Fuhrer and his Bunker toadies soaring into spirals of grotesque 11th-hour optimism. Now that Fate has removed from the Earth the greatest War criminal of All time said Hitler the turning Point of this War will be  propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels happily jumped up and Down that s it that s it now we be got it Hitler hoped that somehow the Allied coalition would now break up. He hoped that a negotiated peace could be achieved with the Western allies and they could All together Battle the bolsheviks. He hoped. He rained flying bombs on Britain hoping to break morale and there was talk of other secret doomsday weapons. But it was too Little and too late by a few million corpses. Despite Hitler s incessant fight to the death rhetoric to his legions and his threats of reprisals against their relatives at Home if they did to More than a million germans surrendered in the first three weeks of april. April 16, 0400 hours at that moment said Ryan red flares burst in the night sky above the swollen River Oder triggering a stupefying artillery barrage Thunder in the East signalling the final drive to Berlin. The russian hordes were coming. As the attack began berliners waited in the bombed rubble of their City numbed and terrified clinging to the Only politics that now counted the politics of survival. To eat had become More important than to love to Burrow More dignified than to fight to endure More militarily Correct than to  the Fuhrer promises that floods of fresh units Seething with nationalist socialist Fervour will soon inundate the Battlefield saving Berlin. But what Berlin actually had in defense of its 321 Square Miles said Ryan was a miscellaneous collection of 12 and 15-year-Olds from Hitler youth Good Little germans persuaded to die for the supreme warlord. There were also policemen engineering units flak Battery Crews and infantry consisting of 60,000 untrained Home guardsmen poorly equipped Many in their 70s. And everyday the russian artillery hundreds of guns to the mile rumbled closer. April 20the Fuhrer s 56th birthday. The . 7th army takes rubble strewn Nurnberg. Great shrine of nazism. At the birthday party in the Fuhre Bunker Champagne is served. Outside soviet shells Are crashing closer. It is not the happiest of birthdays. The remains of his old inner Circle those who have risen with him and Are now falling even those preparing to run out on him shake hands with their Fuhrer Exchange pledges and lies. Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goring who once dreamed of seeing All Germany armed and marching in columns now prepares to flee southward from his Castle with 24 trucks loaded with paintings Silver Antiques and furniture but stops by the party briefly to express his loyalty. In Honor of the occasion Goebbels goes on the radio and makes a speech promising to win the War and blah blah. Do you think in this hour an old trusting German woman asks he would lie to us the Bunker is More and More dreamy surreal. April 25, 1945 converging american and soviet troops join up near Tougau on the Elbe River in what now is East Germany russians group together near the Brandenburg Gate to hear officers announce the end of fighting in Berlin. Bottles and half empty glasses sit around. People laugh maniacally As if it were old times. Five minutes later they talk of suicide discuss the Efficacy of various poisons. Cyanide seems the thing. Later Hitler s dog Blondi will be tested to see if it s the real stuff. It is. April 25yanks say hello to russians linking up on the Elbe River. Vodka is consumed. Germany is now Cut in half and Berlin encircled. The Battle for Berlin rumbles along Street by barricaded Street House by crumbling House. The russians Are throwing in everything thousands of tanks crunching Forward a firestorm of artillery. After a Street is taken they wheel in big guns level the muzzles blast away the barricades. They come in All kinds of uniforms on horseback on foot motorcycles in a Clatter of horse drawn carts. The Fuhrer meanwhile one minute orders a general shot then promotes him to Berlin commandant then fires him. Running out of commanders he takes personal command of the Berlin defense. In the Tunnel vision of the Bunker he moves fantasy armies full of pure fierce sons of aryan Light around in his head and Calls for reinforcements from ghost divisions. At times he curses the jews howls against the bolsheviks accuses virtually everyone around him of being traitors defeatists idiots. Desperate orders flashed out from the deranged Man in the Bunker wrote Ryan. Commands Are superseded by counter commands. Counter commands Are cancelled by new commands. One minute a general is ordered to Rush his Force to the East Bank of a River 10 minutes later he s ordered to throw them to the West Bank. Hitler s messages at this time had one theme recounts Ryan frantic inquiries for information usually about armies that no longer existed or were hopelessly sealed off. Over and Over. What is Wenck s position where is Steiner where is Wenck?1 " where is anybody it is too much for a Young teletype operator named Gerda who just wept silently. As she sent out Hitler s messages and his threats and his orders that the dying nation was to fight to the last  despite the chaos the outgunned mostly inexperienced germans in the streets fight with a mix of courage turning to dread disillusion. Hitler s Little boys Are out there firing Panze Fauste rockets that can Knock out a tank. But then the Brave boys began to turn and run. The old men drop their arms. Some issued unusable italian ammunition for their German rifles ask what Are we supposed to do throw stones at the russians soldiers All Over the City Are saying to hell with it As Berlin is reduced to a Jungle of  a Jungle in More ways than one. The first Waves of the red army says Ryan Are hard bitten but scrupulously Correct in behaviour. Not at All what the terrified citizenry expected. The fighting troops seem Only interested in moving up and getting on with the Battle. These Are Good disciplined and decent soldiers a russian lieutenant tells a Catholic nun. But i must Tell you. The men following us. Are pigs the scars of staying alive caused by the invasion of the pigs Cut almost As deep As death. In Berlin alone at least 20,000 women and girls perhaps As Many As 100,000, Are raped by marauding drinking plundering russians. A russian tells his victim As he leaves her that s what the germans did in  a communist woman nearly starving to death continued on Page 17 Page 16 the stars and stripes sunday May 6,1990