Did Hitler live during the Great Patriotic War in Ukraine and where else did he manage to visit in the USSR?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many people know that during the war years Stalin did not leave Moscow. Even when the Germans were already on the outskirts of the city, and the evacuation began in the capital, the leader did not even think about running away. But Adolf Hitler traveled, and not only in his country, but also in the occupied territories. Moreover, he visited not only the capitals of European countries, but also came to the USSR. For what purpose did Hitler visit the country of the Soviets, what objects he chose and why it was not customary to advertise it.

Adolf did not like to travel, but he was very fond of visiting the countries that were plunged by his army. Or at least in the still occupied territories. Against the background of the induced devastation, he competently talked about the endless perfection of German weapons, the invincibility of his army and, in general, about the superiority of Nazi Germany over the rest of the world. Standing on the ruins of other people's ruined destinies, he felt like a great strategist.

In addition, Hitler constantly intervened in the affairs of the military, considering himself quite capable of this kind of activity. He took the slightest victories at his own expense, and in case of failures, he immediately found the guilty ones. Stalin trusted his military leaders much more. This is evidenced at least by the fact that Stalin did not travel around the country during the war in order to personally control the situation, but relied on the professionalism of the military and the honesty of their reports.

First ride

The Barbarossa plan, which was quite effective in the first months of the outbreak of the war, gave the Fritz hope for a quick and overwhelming victory. Confident that everything is going according to plan, Hitler arrives in the occupied Latvian SSR as soon as it was under occupation.

The headquarters of the "North" group was located in Malnava (eastern Latvia), it was here, in the building of the agricultural school, that Hitler arrived. At the meeting, he intended to discuss the advance of the troops with Field Marshal Wilhelm von Leeb. The Fuhrer stayed here for about five hours, having developed a plan for the further offensive of his troops on Leningrad, he left back.

Witness manuscripts of local residents have survived that in the morning they noticed an insane amount of guards - the soldiers stretched out as a hedge along the road, the military were placed every ten steps. Then someone joked, they say, they prepared as if they were waiting for Hitler himself. And so it happened, very soon the Fuhrer's plane landed at the airport nearby. The leadership of Army Group North was already waiting for him to discuss further military prospects. Moreover, the Fuhrer had a personal guard that accompanied him, ordinary military men not only could not protect him, but were not even allowed close to him - it was impossible to trust anyone.

Today it is a tourist spot, but visitors are shown a concrete bunker in which a meeting was held with Hitler's participation. However, some historians are sure that this structure arose later, and the Fuhrer was at a meeting at the estate.

Brest Fortress

Before the Fuhrer visited Paris, enjoyed the ruins that arose in the French capital after his soldiers. And then he intended to enhance the effect by visiting the USSR. But the German army at the Brest Fortress began to reduce its effectiveness. Hitler decided to investigate the situation on the spot. The fortress had not even had time to cool down after the battles, when the Fuehrer arrived in it, and not alone. He himself wanted to see the citadel on which his beloved Austrian infantry division nearly broke its teeth.

While the infantry recently marched through Paris in a victorious march, they suffered heavy losses in Brest. He was accompanied by Mussolini, Hitler planned to persuade him to take more active actions on the Eastern Front. But the visit to the fortress did not bring them particularly close.

The leaders of the states flew by plane to the airfield, and then arrived by car across the Terespolsky bridge to their destination. They played a special role in front of Mussolini, for example, they showed him the weapons, which were brought specially before their visit and pretended that there were still many of them. Mussolini had several questions about this type of weapon, but he could not get any detailed explanations. In general, it seemed that there was no special understanding between the allies.

In general, the dictators walked around the dilapidated fortress for almost two hours, while almost not even talking to each other. They examined the church, which at that time served as a movie theater, a diversion of the river, then returned to the airfield, had a bite to eat in the camp kitchen and returned back.

While the two leaders were leisurely strolling, the area around the perimeter was cordoned off by a dense circle of guards, and Hitler's personal guards. Other servicemen, and even more so civilians, simply could not penetrate the territory of the fortress.

Hitler's personal bet

On the territory of the USSR, Hitler has a personal equipped headquarters "Werewolf", located near Vinnitsa in the village of Strizhavka. It was a well-equipped bunker on several floors with good equipment. Hitler not only visited here, but also lived for a long time. It was in 1942-43, when the course of the war gave the Germans hope for a positive outcome.

Hitler settled down comfortably, there was also a separate barracks for his personal protection, of course, work offices, there was even a large open-air swimming pool. Now from here to the city about five kilometers. At the time of World War II, this was Hitler's only headquarters on the territory of the USSR of this magnitude. The rest of the centers built for Hitler were more modest.

The fact that a headquarters was needed on the territory of the USSR for the most effective leadership of the troops was known even before the attack on the country by the Soviets. Immediately after the Barbarossa plan was signed, it was decided to build the headquarters around this area. It was an ideal location, with one side being close to the front for the most effective command. On the other hand, it is inaccessible to enemy aircraft.

Vinnitsa was also chosen because it is located on a highway junction, and the location of the headquarters has natural protection from both sides thanks to the rivers.

Hitler visited Werewolf with his beloved dog Blondie, but he never took his life partner Eva Braun here. When Hitler lived here, he periodically traveled to the surrounding areas. I have been to Mariupol, Poltava, Kharkov, Zaporozhye. Of course, this has always been risky. It was for safety reasons that he did not plan the trip in advance, but drove spontaneously. In principle, this behavior suited the impulsive Hitler in character.

But such trips were not always safe, even with all the measures taken. So, one day he almost fell into captivity. It was in Zaporozhye, where Army Group South worked. At the moment when Soviet troops broke through the front line, which ran 5 km from the place where Hitler was, his plane was still on the take-off site. An armored train with artillerymen went out to cut the Soviet tanks. Despite the fact that everything worked out, the Fuhrer was extremely frightened, he tried not to take risks anymore, and chose routes not so close to the front line. Apparently the Soviet soldiers, whom he did not consider for people, turned out to be not at all as miserable and insignificant as he used to think.

During the retreat, the Werewolf was blown up and almost completely destroyed. The fact that there was once a huge bunker here is reminiscent of only a few remaining boulders and a pool.

Russian bunker

Despite the fact that the Vinnitsa bunker is considered the only headquarters of Hitler on the territory of the USSR, there is another bunker to which he came. The village of Krasny Bor, located near Smolensk, was one of the places where the Fuhrer was stationed, however, he visited here much less often than in Werfolf. According to some reports, he was here twice - in the fall of 1941 and in March 1943.

Right after the war, rumors spread throughout Russia that Hitler had built not just a bunker near Smolensk, but a real city. The name was appropriate - Berenhalle - translated into a bear den. This bunker is the only one of Hitler's seven known bunkers that has survived.

The Soviet leadership knew that the construction of the bunker had begun here in the fall of 1941. A certain woman constantly appeared nearby, supposedly a local resident, but in fact a scout, working under the call sign "Smolenskaya". There are enough oddities associated with this object. Why did the Soviet military leadership, being aware of the presence of a bunker here, never subjected it to an air raid? And why did the Germans, retreating, not bomb it on their own like everyone else? It is likely that the retreating Germans preferred not to waste time on a less significant object.

Despite the fact that the bunker has survived, it remains poorly understood. It consisted of more than 40 rooms, it had more than 500 meters of trenches, four hundred new trees and twice as many shrubs were planted for camouflage. The water supply was carried out with great care, there was a high-voltage network and two power supplies for the reserve.

The bunker was completed in 1942, when the need for it had practically disappeared. After Smolensk was liberated, some local residents were able to get into the bunker, but almost immediately after the establishment of Soviet power, all entrances to the bunker were barricaded, hatches were welded. The complex itself was filled with water by the NKVD officers. The data, as usual in the USSR, was immediately classified. Until now, the device of the Bear's Corner is not known for certain, its technical characteristics and prospects assigned to it.

Hitler's trace in Belarus

According to the surviving newsreels, Hitler visited Belarus several times. First, he inspects the territory from the air, then lands at the airfield, he is greeted by the jubilant Germans. At the end of the summer of 1941, a conference was held in Borisov with the leadership of the armies "Center", to which Hitler himself arrived. He stayed here for some two hours, but during this time key decisions were made that affected the course of the war.

During the meeting, the two commanders did not agree with Hitler about the direction in which the troops should move next. Both generals insisted that after the capture of Smolensk it was necessary to go to Moscow. Both of them argued that in this situation, it would be possible to enter Moscow by the end of this month. But none of them were able to convince the Fuhrer. He decided to first take Leningrad, Rostov, closing the wedges in Moscow.

Leningrad interested Hitler as an industrial center and the coast of the Baltic Sea. In addition, it was in this city that the country's only plant for the production of heavy tanks was located. He designated Moscow as only the third most important object, which plunged the generals into despondency. Probably, for the generals, the capture of Moscow would be the culmination of their career, but Hitler did not let them do this.

That is why historians call the meeting in Belarus fateful. Although it is too difficult to determine the outcome of the war with a different decision. It cannot be ruled out that if Hitler had agreed with the generals' arguments, Moscow would have been taken. But would this mean that the ending of the war would have been different? Historians have no consensus on this score. Some are convinced that the country of the Soviets would have been defeated. Others say that the capital would temporarily move to Kuibyshev and the victory of the USSR would be delayed, but not canceled.

There are also opinions that Hitler did the right thing, trying to initially destroy the enemy formations. After all, a dash to Moscow would be an ambitious and quite likely a successful plan. But in the long run, it would become a mousetrap, because the main forces of the enemy have not yet been destroyed. If Hitler had entered Moscow, he would have immediately received a blow from the troops arriving in time from near Kiev.

Suvorov said that a geographical object cannot be the ultimate goal of a battle. He argued that you need to smash the army and then everything will be yours: the capital, and industry, and the population. And the war against the capital, they say, is the level of Bonaparte.

There is also controversy about where exactly this significant meeting took place. It is believed that the military leaders settled in the former estate of the Romanovs. This house had a huge history, it is known that Napoleon once stayed here. If Hitler knew about this, then his refusal to take Moscow seems mystical and logical at the same time. The fact that Hitler was overwhelmed by just such moods is evidenced by the fact that the Germans burned the house while retreating, unnecessarily.

Today, with a greater degree of probability, it can be argued that any decision of the Fuehrer would not have saved his army from a crushing defeat. Yes, this could change the course of the war, but Hitler lost at the moment when in June 1941 he moved his troops across the border of the USSR.

During the reign of Hitler, he was assassinated more than 40 times. The reasons why the attempts were unsuccessful time after time are always different. He was saved either by the ill-conceivedness of the attackers, then by his own caution, or even by mere chance. It was in Borisov that one of the first attempts took place. The organizer of the assassination attempt was Officer Henning von Treskov, who fought in Army Group Center.

The attempt in Borisov was thwarted by the personal security of the Fuhrer. If it succeeded, it would definitely turn the tide of the war and history as a whole.

If at the beginning of World War II Hitler traveled through the occupied territories, then driven back to Germany by Soviet troops, he was afraid to even leave his own bunker. Too cowardly to face danger, he preferred to multiply bunkers and the number of personal guards, but this did not save him from an inglorious death.