Page 503 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I
P. 503
503
ActA
8
proclamation of the “Occupation Statute of Germany” on April 10, 1949. This very
broad time frame is divided into three distinct phases: Firstly, from post-hostilities
operations in the first occupied German cities in late 1944 to the installation of the zones
of occupation and the transformation of power in late 1945; secondly, from stabilization
and the early stages of democratization in the zones of occupation in spring 1946 until
the replacement of JCS 1067 by JCS 1779 in July 1947; thirdly, from July 1947 until
the proclamation of “Occupation Statute”. This study focuses on Al- lied planning of the
first phase.
To understand the drastic character of May 8, 1945 and in this context the meaning
of the term “Hour Zero”, it is important to take a brief look at what happened in the six
years before. The Wehrmacht of the last days of World War II in the European Theater
of Operations was only a pale reflection of the forces that had conquered half of Europe
in the preceding years: As historian Robert Citino put it: “With their fearsome tank,
9
or Panzer, formations as an apparently irresistible spearhead, and with a powerful
air force […] circling overhead, the Wehrmacht ran through, around, and over every
defensive position thrown in its path.” 10
According to the master narrative, the Wehrmacht was deprived of its deserved
11
victories by Hitler, who was a “stubborn military amateur” . Although this master nar-
rative was created after the war, not least with the help of many former Wehrmacht
Generals, it has influenced the international historiography of World War II for many
12
decades. The main argument of the narrative is that the Germans’ fortunes of the war
8 Occupation Statute defining the powers to be retained by the Occupation Authorities; in: FRUS 1949, Vol. III,
p. 179 – 183
9 See Kunz, Andreas. “Die Wehrmacht in der Agonie der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft 1944/45: Eine
Gedankenskizze.” In Kriegsende 1945 in Deutschland. Edited by Jörg Hillmann and John Zimmermann, 97–
114. München: Oldenbourg, 2002; Detlef Vogel, “Deutsche und Alliierte Kriegsführung im Westen,” in Das
deutsche Reich in der Defensive: Strategischer Luftkrieg in Europa, Krieg im Westen und in Ostasien 1943-
1944/45, ed. Horst Boog, Gerhard Krebs and Detlef Vogel, Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg 7
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2001), 419–639.; Jung, Hermann. Die Ardennenoffensive 1944/45: Ein
Beispiel für die Kriegführung Hitlers. Studien und Dokumente zur Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkrieges 12.
Göttingen: Musterschmidt, 1971
10 Citino, Robert M. Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942. Lawrence: University Press of
Kansas, 2007, p. 14
11 Gerhard Paul Groß, Mythos und Wirklichkeit: Die Entwicklung des operativen Denkens im deutschen Heer
von Moltke d.Ä. bis Heusinger, Zeitalter der Weltkriege 9 (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2012)., p. 277
12 For the work and the influence of the Operational History (German) Section of the Historical Division of
the United States Army see in detail Krug, Esther-Julia. ““Holding down the Fort?”: The War Historical
Cooperation of the U.S. Army and Former German Wehrmacht Officers, 1945-1961.” MA-Thesis Emory-
University2009. https://etd.library.emory.edu/file/view/pid/emory:1dpgv/krug_dissertation.pdf;
Wegner, Bernd. “Erschriebene Siege.: Franz Halder, die „Historical Division“ und die Rekonstruktion des
Zweiten Weltkrieges im Geiste des deutschen Generalstabes.” In Politischer Wandel, organisierte Gewalt
und nationale Sicherheit: Beiträge zur neueren Geschichte Deutschlands und Frankreichs: Festschrift
für Klaus-Jürgen Müller. Edited by Klaus J. Müller et al., 287–302. Beiträge zur Militärgeschichte 50.
München: R. Oldenbourg, 1995; Burdick, Charles, B. “Vom Schwert zur Feder. Deutsche Kriegsgefangene
im Dienst der Vorbereitung der amerikanischen Kriegsgeschichtsschreibung über den zweiten Weltkrieg:
Die organisatorische Entwicklung der Operational History (German) Section.” Milittärgeschichtliche
Mitteilungen 10, no. 2 (1971): 69–80
