AFTER THRE BATTLE – THE ALLIED CAPTURE OF HANNOVER

Description

Karel Margry tells us how on April 10, 1945, the US 84th Infantry Division attacked the German city of Hannover. The operation formed part of the last Allied offensive of the war in the West, the mighty sweep from the Rhine to the Elbe. The battle for Hannover is exceptional because it was the only large German city where the Kampfkommandant (Combat Commander), duty bound by Hitler to hold on till the last bullet, decided to act differently. In the early morning of the 10th, as the troops of the ‘Railsplitters’ Division were beginning their advance into the city, he decided that a further stand was hopeless and ordered his troops to stop fighting, giving them a choice between surrendering or making their way out of the city. Thus the Americans were able to clear the city — a prime centre of armaments production — in just 18 hours, an altogether different experience compared to what happened in cities like Aachen, Cologne, Frankfurt, Magdeburg or Leipzig.