by Hitoshi Goto
After walking some distance, I was shown into a small, featureless room. There was wallpaper and a landscape painting on the walls, so I assumed it must be some kind of reception room, but the only furniture was a wooden desk and four chairs.
Finally Rear Admiral von Puttkamer, the naval adjutant to Hitler, appeared.
He could speak English, so I introduced myself again and informed him that I knew about the request from the German navy for temporary refuge in Japan for a VIP from the German government.
“I am exceedingly grateful to your country for agreeing to consider our request. Also now that the Soviet offensive has commenced on the frontline at the River Oder, the situation is such that we don’t know what will happen now. The twentieth is our Führer’s birthday, when his core team including Admiral Dönitz will be gathering. I personally think that day might be a critical juncture,” he said quickly.
That evening I ate dinner at the embassy.
Secretary Niiseki and Lieutenant General Abe had returned from the Tripartite Pact military committee. They had met the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, whose report had been reassuring.
The Seelow Heights were under German control, which meant the Soviet forces were unable to advance.
18-20 April 1945
Eastern Berlin ~ Führerbunker
On 18 April Hitler turned up twenty minutes before the appointed hour of midday for the regular strategy meeting held in a conference room in the underground bunker.
General Field Marshal Keitel reported on the situation. Two days after the Soviet forces had launched their offensive, they had lost more tanks than they had initially sent in at the start of the operation, and they had been unable to break through the front at the River Oder. It was therefore thought that the Soviet offensive on Berlin was likely to end in failure this time. Cheers erupted around the room, and Hitler said that the turning point in the war was near.
However, their joy did not last for long.
Marshal Zhukov, the commander of the offensive acting under strict orders from Stalin, apparently managed to spur on his troops to fight hard for his 1st Belorussian Front finally captured the Seelow Heights with an enormous number of tanks, despite having sustained considerable damage.
Once the frontline had been breached, a large number of tanks broke through and headed for Berlin to begin their onslaught.
This was not the only bad news. The 1st Ukrainian Front had also broken through the frontline in the vicinity of Cottbus south of Germany’s 9th Army, and were heading for Berlin. If they continued on this course, the 9th Army would be surrounded. There was now no stopping the mudflow of Soviet forces headed for Berlin.
A warning was sent to the troops defending the second circle of defence around Berlin that the Soviet forces were approaching.
19 April. Until now, air raids had only happened at night, but as the residents of Berlin were getting up, they found themselves looking over to the eastern horizon where there were faint sounds of explosions.
Just before noon, the Soviet forces occupied Müncheberg. They were only about thirty kilometres from Berlin city limits.
Hitler ordered all soldiers to be mobilised to repel the Soviets, but it appeared the number of Soviet tanks had increased even further. No sooner had they destroyed one tank than two more appeared.
At the evening war-briefing meeting, Hitler received the latest update report from the division protecting Berlin. Currently they had about 41,000 troops, and a further fifty thousand would be added through mobilisation within six hours. There was only one weapon for every two of these 90,000 soldiers. In terms of heavy weaponry, they had field guns and had ordered the troops to use them horizontally against the advancing Soviet forces. However, most of them were of the fixed type, so couldn’t be moved.
At any moment they would be attacked by the huge Soviet force that had broken through the first line of defence.
20 April. It was Hitler’s birthday, a national holiday for some years now.
In previous years a grand parade had always had been held to mark the occasion, but that was out of the question in Berlin now. The biggest parade was the one held by the garrison defending Rhodes Island at the headquarters of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem in Rhodes, far to the east in the Aegean Sea.
At dawn, the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts were joined by the 2nd Belorussian Front deployed to the north launching their attack on the defending 3rd Panzer Army.
General Busse’s 9th Army was cut off from behind and a telegram requesting permission to retreat arrived in Hitler’s bunker, but Hitler had just gone to bed and there was no one else who could give such permission.
It was a beautiful sunny spring day in Berlin, but at 09:30 the air raid sirens sounded and the residents all withdrew to air raid shelters.
The Soviet troops had advanced on the city of Bernau north-east of Berlin, and in the morning started bombarding Berlin with 15 cm shells. These only sporadically fell on the northern part of Berlin and the air raid warning was cancelled, but news of the shelling spread like wildfire among citizens.
Nevertheless, this was a national holiday, and special rations of food, including bacon, ham, sugar and real coffee, were distributed.
13:30. Thirty minutes before Hitler was due to wake up, Göring, Dönitz, Keitel, Ribbentrop, Göbbels, and Speer arrived one after another.
When Hitler awoke at 14:00, he went up into the inner courtyard of the Chancellery to address the waiting lines of Hitler Youth and then went back into the bunker.
At 15:15 everybody gathered in the conference room and at 16:00 the strategy meeting started. The question was whether or not to surrender Berlin and continue fighting in southern Germany.
It was decided that if necessary the supreme command would be divided between north and south, and that Dönitz would be take command of the north. Hitler did not say who would take command of the south, so everybody assumed that he himself would do so.
However, although Göring and most of the other key members decided to move south, Hitler was adamant he would stay in Berlin.
†
That day a top-secret meeting had been held just after 15:00, before the regular strategy meeting. Only a few were in attendance, including Hitler himself, Bormann, Dönitz, Göbbels, Ribbentrop, and also Göring, but it was of utmost importance for Germany.
The main subject on the agenda was Romulus.
A conclusion was quickly reached. Romulus would be taken from Bayern to Oslo in Norway using the full power of the Luftwaffe. There he would board a submarine with a nanny and taken to South America. Almost two months aboard a submarine would be tough on the infant, but it was unavoidable.
The flight carrying Romulus would depart on the twenty-ninth, while the submarine would depart from Kiel within a few days, and would set sail from Oslo early in May.
Eventually they decided to use the conventional U977 submarine. The type 21 had a high performance, but it had not yet been tested in operation, explained Grand Admiral Dönitz. Regarding fuel, it would be supplied with 120 tons as a matter of priority.
There was also a discussion on what would happen after it arrived. Even South American countries with strong ties to Germany were now beginning to declare war on Germany. Therefore it was decided to approach the coast of Argentina in secrecy and seek the protection of the Nazi Party organisation in South America.
And should there ever be a turning point in the war, it was agreed to bring Romulus back to Germany again.
It was also discussed to arrange for a back-up plan for the route. Should the political situation be such that wasn’t possible to sail to South America, it was decided to have a Type 9 waiting near the Cape Verde islands off the west coast of Africa. If necessary a rendezvous would also be possible. A U977 fitted with a snorkel could probably break through the Allies’ northern Atlantic patrol in
one continuous dive. Once they entered the southern Atlantic, air surveillance would weaken so it would be possible to pass the baton to a Type 9 capable of sailing long distances. It would probably be possible to evacuate Romulus temporarily to Japan.
However, when Dönitz suggested this, Hitler pulled a sour face. It was exactly the face he’d pulled upon hearing that Japan had occupied Singapore three years earlier, Göbbels thought.
“Romulus is my son. Do you really believe I would send my own son to be in the care of Asians? We have to think a hundred years into the future. What would the public think if the son of the Aryan’s Führer was raised by an Asian race?” Hitler groaned.
“Mein Führer, this is just a back-up plan in case we cannot use the South American route, and would only be temporary. Of course we shall persevere with our new weapons development to enable Germany to turn the tables on the war,” Bormann said, managing to convince him.
†
Schäffer stared at the submarine sitting alongside the pier. He already had the documents stating it was now under his command.
There were two days before they were due to set sail. The submarine was fully equipped. They would sail to Norway, where they would refuel, and take on board a VIP passenger. He had been told that this time the passenger was an infant, the son of a high-ranking government official. He was just two years old.
After setting sail from Norway, the plan was to sail underwater for around two months. They would use the snorkel as much as possible to avoid being seen by the Allied planes. To be honest, he doubted whether a two-year-old would be able to stand the environment on board for that long.
It was just noon when the air raid siren sounded. His subordinates would have to immediately board and take the submarine out, with their consort vessel following after them. He heard a dreadful roar as the American planes flew overhead.
Schäffer knew very well that their vessel was completely defenceless. There was no sign of the Luftwaffe in the air. And the American planes were clearly targeting them.
The New York a hundred metres away took two shots, and then its consort vessel took a direct hit and disappeared under the water in a matter of seconds.
†
The morning after Armaments Minister Speer attended Hitler’s birthday, he was headed for Hamburg.
Here he intended to cancel Hitler’s scorched earth order, and was also to record a speech in a radio station studio appealing directly for an end to the war. In the event that Speer was arrested and sentenced to death, this recording would immediately be broadcast. This in itself clearly demonstrated his treachery against Hitler.
The people who were of the same mind as Speer urged him to stay in safety in Hamburg. His response, however, was extremely unexpected.
“I am going back to Berlin to be with the Führer.”
At 19:30 on the twenty-third, Speer again showed up at the Reich Chancellery.
Memorandum
Berlin residents were queuing at delivery points throughout the city to receive the special rations for Hitler’s birthday, distribution of which had started yesterday.
There had been a huge change: the city itself was now the frontline.
11:30 on 21 April. People in London, Berlin and other places had often experienced the explosive sound of bombs dropping during air raids, but this time it was field guns and utterly different. First there was a sudden ear-splitting scream overhead and then a shells fell. I just happened to be walking in front of the hotel, and witnessed a direct hit on the Brandenburg Gate.
Berlin was turning into a battlefield. I had expected it, but still a shudder of fear ran down my spine. Part of me regretted having stayed behind.
Shells were raining down on the government district around the hotel. I hastily retreated to the hotel’s underground bunker.
The weather was unstable on 22 April. Sunny spells were interspersed with rain, and even hail at times. Now was the only chance to escape Berlin overland, but I had not yet achieved the mission I had been given before leaving London. There had not yet been any specific information about how Romulus would be taken out of the country, and I couldn’t leave until this point had been clarified. This was also a matter of my own pride.
When I went to the embassy early in the morning, I was taken aback to find the embassy staff preparing for the Soviet advance by disposing of important documents as well as destroying its cipher machine. This meant that the embassy would no longer be able to communicate directly with Tokyo.
I went to consult with Councillor Kawahara. He told me that they had to dispose of the cipher machine, but should there be important information to communicate, they could send it via courier to Switzerland or Sweden, from where it would be relayed to Tokyo. I was relieved to hear this.
At about the same time, contact was made from the German side. The naval adjutant Admiral von Puttkamer was headed to Berchtesgaden that day, so his replacement, Admiral Voss, sought a meeting tomorrow.
On 23 April, I went to the Reich Chancellery with Captain Taniguchi and Councillor Kawahara. Again we were shown into the drab room, and eventually the white-haired Admiral Voss appeared.
“I have taken over this position from today. I’ll come straight to the point. There is a message from the Reich Chancellery with regard to our request some time ago about the possibility of sending a VIP to temporary refuge in Japan. We consider there to be a strong possibility of pursuing this. The mode of transport is to be submarine.”
“So who is the person expected to board, and when will this be?”
“At this point I have not yet been informed who the VIP will be. We shall be using a U977, which will set sail probably in early May. We also plan to send the Type 9 currently operating in the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic as a reserve vessel.”
“Will the U977 be setting sail from Norway?”
“Probably.”
The admiral’s responses were still vague, but he was clearly indicating they were considering the possibility of taking refuge in Japan.
Just the fact this had been confirmed justified my having remained in Berlin…
I was walking from the Brandenburg Gate towards the Victory Column, Siegessäule, on my way to meet the Swedish art dealer in the Tiergarten when I again met Armaments Minister Speer. The Soviet Army was descending on the city centre from all directions. Even just meeting the art dealer I was risking my life.
It was around seven in the evening and suddenly the streets were blocked by soldiers. I was just wondering what was happening, when I saw a plane approaching from the west as if about to land. It looked as though it was planning to use the road as a runway.
As I watched in astonishment, the plane landed demonstrating considerable skill. It was a German practice plane. I was even more amazed to see Speer alight from the plane.
He headed straight for a car waiting at the side of the road, but then caught sight of me and came running over.
“Mr. Hoshino, I’m surprised to see you still here in Berlin!”
As we shook hands, he explained that he had just come back from Hamburg and was on his way to the Reich Chancellery. He had planned to come overland, but there were so many refugees on the road that he changed to an aeroplane and flew to Gatow Airport on the western outskirts. However, Berlin was already surrounded so the only way for him to reach the centre was to use the practice plane to bring him in.
“In Hamburg I recorded a call to put an end to the war. It will be broadcast at the time of my arrest. Coming back to Berlin I will probably be arrested on the spot. Even so, I wanted to see the Führer one last time.”
“The Führer?”
Speer smiled wanly. “I’m sure you must remember that I am an architect. Adolf Hitler was a friend with whom I could talk about architecture and our dreams to reconstruct the city as Germania. We are of different ages and positions, but we have been
friends since well before he became Führer. As a close friend, of course I want to see him one last time.”
“Even if it means putting your life in danger?”
Speer laughed mockingly. “Aren’t you doing the same?”
23-24 April 1945
Berlin
After most of the generals and top government officials had left for the south, Hitler was focused on drawing up an all-or-nothing counter-attack strategy. He had General Wenck’s 12th Army, which had been holding out against the Allies on the western front, go to southern Berlin to join forces with the 9th Army.
Meanwhile, General Steiner’s 3rd SS Panzer Corps was coming to Berlin from the northeast.
It was a good strategy on paper, but the trouble was that many units only existed in Hitler’s head and on the map.
The Soviet Army was advancing on Berlin from the east with the main force of the 1st Belorussian Front, while from the north the 2nd Guard’s Tank Army looked set to cross the River Havel at Oraniengburg and move south.
In southern Berlin the 3rd Guard’s Tank Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front had passed Zossen and was headed further south, while the 4th Guard’s Tank Army aimed for Potsdam in the west of Berlin.
On 23 April Potsdam was occupied, and the Soviet Army advanced as far as the Teltow Canal.
Thus the two Soviet tank armies coming from north and south shook hands, and sought to seal the ring around the city.
A terrible drama had also been prepared for the interlude in the fierce fighting.
In Berchtesgaden, Göring judged that Hitler had lost freedom of movement in Berlin. According to Hitler’s decree on 29 June 1941, Göring had been authorised to take over the role of Führer in the case of Hitler’s death, or act as deputy if for any other reason he was unable to continue to rule. Göring now sent a confirmation telegraph to Berlin to this effect. Furthermore, he set a time limit for eight hours, as proposed by General Koller who had rushed to join him from Berlin. After sending the telegram, already in a presidential mood he began to draft a surrender negotiation with Eisenhower.
