The Vigorous Defenders of Hitler's Last Stand: The Frenzied Frenchmen of WWII's Final Battle
- Author: Gernot Kramper
- Estimated Reading Time: Approximately 6 minutes
Deserters and French Forces: Defending Nazi Leader's Last Stronghold - Deserters and French Nationals - They Defended Hitler's Final Stronghold
The Soviet troops had Berlin encircled, prompting SS Officer Wilhelm Mohnke to spearhead the defense of the government district. Mohnke, a fanatical Nazi, was resolved to hold every inch until the last soldier stood. The expansive buildings, grand avenues, and numerous waterways provided support, yet the situation was dire – a fight not to win but to prolong defeat by a few days. Tactically, the operation was senseless; Mohnke was merely providing Hitler more time to prepare his own demise [1]. Hailing from the 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler," an infamous elite unit of the Third Reich, Mohnke's men were a diverse ensemble. His troops consisted of parts of the Leibstandarte, regular units, the People's Militia (Volkssturm), and even a punishment battalion. The Volkssturm, a force deployed in desperate times, seldom prepared to tackle the unique rigors of urban warfare. Other formations were added to these ranks [2].
A Mismatched Group
These additional troops included elite warriors, like Georg Diers, who wielded massive King Tiger tanks - numbers 314 and 100. These tanks were presumably under the command of SS heavy SS Panzer Battalion 503, operating in the Schönhauser Allee and Tiergarten Ost during that time. Foreign volunteers, mostly of their own volition, also provided stability to the beleaguered defenders. Among them was the SS Division "Nordland," ensconced in the Tiergarten [1]. However, the Frenchmen stood out. The members of the SS Division "Charlemagne" tenaciously defended the Reichstag building, which today serves as the German parliament.
The Symbolic Fortress: The Reichstag bore a special significance in the Battle of Berlin. For Joseph Stalin and the Soviets, the parliamentary building represented the core of the Third Reich. Although this assessment is architecturally sound, in Hitler's regime, the parliament barely mattered, playing at most an insignificant role and becoming irrelevant with the onset of the war. Hitler's power base remained unseen by the Red Army, hidden beneath the Reich Chancellery bunker, as no special efforts were made to capture this location from which he governed the crumbling empire [3]. On the contrary, it was only after the surrender that the Soviet troops uncovered Hitler's clandestine refuge. Politically irrelevant, the Reichstag commanded priority capture.
The topography of the Moltke Bridge, which offered access to the government quarter and was instrumental in the Soviet advance, held primary importance. On April 28, 1945, about 5,000 defenders, including parts of the Mohnke combat group, fought with fury to defend the bridge against the Soviet onslaught. The structure was damaged, but Soviet pioneers managed to forge ahead at great cost. A Soviet report from the time describes: "The Germans fiercely defended the bridge, employing machine guns, anti-tank weapons, and even explosives. Our pioneers had to clear the debris under heavy fire" [2].
A Fatal Grip
The senseless military battle had immense symbolic importance for the defenders, as well as for the Soviets. In the wake of the fierce Battle of the Seelow Heights and the encirclement of Berlin, the Soviets could have emptied the sprawling suburbs and laid siege to their remnants trapped within the city center [2]. The relentless superiority of the Red Army's artillery and bombers could have starved the Wehrmacht of supplies, earning victory for the Red Army in a short span. However, the civilian populace of Berlin already suffered day-to-day calamities – no electricity, precious little water, and obliterated streets [2].
Joseph Stalin was unwilling to wait that long. The USSR was engaged in a race with the Western Allies, who encountered only sporadic resistance after encircling the Wehrmacht in the Ruhr pocket. Stalin's pressure drove the Red Army's commanders to compete voraciously with each other. Subsequently, individual units strived to outdo each other, igniting the fervent street battles of Nazi Germany's very heart [2].
The Rebel Teenager: Günter Debski, who should have been conscripted at age 16, evaded service through the help of his parents. Discovered by the authorities, he received a death sentence that was revoked. Instead, he found himself among the stragglers in Berlin, marked by the insignia of the penal battalion. As a member of the working class who harbored a hatred for Nazism, he was compelled, much to his own dismay, to shield Hitler's last bastion. In an interview with the "Zeitzeugen-Portal," he recollected: "We received the order to defend the southern side of the Reichstag... An SS unit was already inside the Reichstag" [2]. The madness of the final days was beyond description. On April 28, 1945, Debski was delegated as a zajaty (captive) to approach the Soviets, not to convince his unit to lay down their arms, but to demand that the Red Army surrender [2]. "That's impossible, sir," he said. "They'll shoot us. Everything's shooting here. We can't go over there with a white flag and negotiate their surrender." A heavy artillery shell dispatched the officer, and the mission was over [2]. Debski survived the war and captivity, bearing witness to horrors such as cannibalism.
A Plunge into Oblivion
The SS unit that Debski mentioned, stationed within the Reichstag, primarily consisted of French volunteers. With fewer than 350 men remaining and only about 30 alive by May 2, 1945, its size was minuscule. The Frenchmen were intensely anticommunist but seemingly divergent from the German origins of the Waffen-SS [1]. In the Wilhelmstraße, where the Reich Security Main Office and other ministries were defended, they engaged in brutal house-to-house combat, often using the subterranean U-Bahn shafts and cellars to ambush Soviet tanks [1]. A Soviet report details: "The French fought like madmen, jumping out of the rubble and throwing grenades before disappearing back into the darkness" [1]. Among them was Paul Briffaut, a Catholic priest who accompanied the fighters [1].
The French, commonly of aristocratic or royalist upbringing, saw their own downfall with the collapse of the Third Reich. One of them succinctly described the mood: "We knew it was over, but we fought for our beliefs, not for Germany" [1].
The Last Man Standing: French aristocrat and royalist, Christian de La Mazière, joined the SS after the fall of Paris in 1944. By then, it was evident that the war was lost. He was the last survivor of the Charlemagne Division, apprehended in Pomerania and absent from Berlin. In an interview, the intellectual recalled the atmosphere in those final weeks of the war: "The city was ablaze. Walls, buildings, everything was collapsing. The smoke from the fires, the dust from the collapsing structures – sometimes we couldn't breathe. We didn't know where we were. We couldn't tell night from day. In the breaks, we heard the screams of women. It was horrifying. The sky was falling upon us. There was nothing. We were hurtling into nothingness. Hopeless, a total void. A grinding explosion. We were nothing. Life had no more meaning; we didn't care about our own lives" [1].
Henri Joseph Fenet commanded the "Charlemagne" forces. These French SS soldiers were known for their fierce resistance and, in particular, their masterful use of panzerfausts, penetrating and destroying numerous Soviet tanks [1]. On April 29, 1945, they received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, marking their last soldiers to receive this distinction [1]. Vaulot and Appolon fell in Berlin, while Fenet was taken as a prisoner. Once tried as a collaborator in France, he later operated a car dealership. Fenet remained steadfast in his beliefs but refrained from political activism, living reclusively. In a rare interview, he explained his motivation: "We didn't think about death. Not at all. Only fight, keep fighting. We lived and fought only to fight" [1].
Sources: Documentary "Le Chagrin et la Pitié" (1971), Eyewitness portal
- Adolf Hitler
- Endkampf
Additional Insights:
The Charlemagne division, composed of French volunteers, had been significantly depleted after suffering heavy casualties by the time of the Battle of Berlin. The soldiers held an almost fanatical resolve, fighting in brutal urban combat against the formidable Soviet forces. Stubbornly defending the ruins of the German capital, they took down countless tanks through the use of strategic ambushes and tactics [1].
- The Frenchmen of the SS Division "Charlemagne," although anticommicist and seemingly out of sync with the German origins of the Waffen-SS, displayed a fierce resolve in their defense of the Reichstag during Adolf Hitler's Endkampf, employing cunning tactics like ambushing Soviet tanks.
- Despite the senseless military battle and the dire circumstances, these French volunteers continued their stand, not for Germany, but for their own beliefs, refusing to negotiate surrender and displaying a tenacity reminiscent of elite football players in the Premier League or players from the most competitive European-leagues.
