Hitler's Last Day: Minute By Minute Part 13

2.00am/3.00am UK time.

In London and the south-east of England snow is settling on the blossom of the trees. After a mild month, the cold weather this weekend has come as a surprise, as there have been no weather forecasts available to the public since the outbreak of war. Weather predictions are something only the military have access to, as they can determine the success or otherwise of their ground operations or bombing raids.

In the Fuhrerbunker, SS doctor Professor Ernst Schenck is looking Hitler in the eye, and although the Fuhrer appears to be staring back at him, his eyes say nothing. There is no expression. They are 'like wet pale blue porcelain, glazed actually more grey than blue... filmy like the skin of a soft ripe grape'. The whites of his eyes are bloodshot and there are dark black bags beneath. Schenck is not clear why he has been woken from a deep sleep and summoned to meet the Fuhrer, but he is one of four medics who have been called to this meeting. He is exhausted. He has been working in the emergency hospital in the Reich Chancellery all week, carrying out operations on the endless stream of wounded who are brought in. Schenck is by training a research doctor, not a surgeon. His more experienced colleague, Dr Werner Haase, guides him through the more complex operations. Haase is suffering from tuberculosis and has difficulty breathing. He lies on a hospital bed beside the operating table and talks Schenck through the necessary incisions.

Schenck has spent most of the war working in Dachau concentration camp, developing nutritious sausages for soldiers, experimenting on the prisoners. He has never been so close to the Fuhrer. The diminished, hunched man with his shaking limbs is nothing like the inspiring leader he has admired from afar. Schenck is a man whose mind always turns to diagnosis. This, he thinks, is a clear case of Parkinson's disease.

Noticing the food stains on the front of Hitler's military jacket, Schenck suddenly becomes aware of the state of his own uniform. It is spattered with encrusted brown blood not his own. He has worked and slept in it for as long as he can remember.

Hitler takes Schenck's hand and gives it a jerky shake, a 'cold fish, flapping gesture'. He moves along the line of medics, shaking their hands in turn with mumbling thanks for their work. The others summoned for this unexpected meeting are Dr Haase, who killed Hitler's German Shepherd Blondi a few hours earlier, and two nurses.

One of the nurses, Erna Flegel, has been helping to look after the Goebbels children during the last week. Flegel is a stolid woman who does not flinch as she dresses the hideous injuries of the wounded who are brought into the emergency hospital but now, when Hitler takes her hand, she breaks down, sobbing, 'My Fuhrer! Have faith in the final victory. Lead us and we will follow you!'

Hitler doesn't respond. He starts speaking, but his words, Schenck notices, seem 'not aimed at anyone in particular'. He is 'just summing things up; speaking, as it were, for the ages'. At last Hitler turns slowly away. Schenck and the two nurses leave, but Dr Haase is asked to stay.

2.15am.

The magnificent 270-foot long, three-masted barque Gorch Fock is slowly sinking into the Baltic Sea. She is a training ship for the German navy, moored just off the island of Danholm. There is no one on board; her crew were deployed elsewhere as the Russians advanced. At midnight the harbour master Hans-Heinrich Beerbohm received an order that the Gorch Fock shouldn't fall into Russian hands (they've already tried to sink her using tank sh.e.l.ls), and so he dispatched two of his men to open the ship's seac.o.c.ks. The men are watching from their motor launch as the Gorch Fock slowly settles on the seabed, her masts protruding above the waves.

After the war, the Gorch Fock will be salvaged and taken as war reparations by the Russians, to be renamed Tovarishch and used as a training vessel until the 1990s. She is now once more in German hands under her old name, and is a museum ship moored close to where she sank in 1945.

2.30am.

The testament couriers from the bunker have become separated on the River Havel. Only Johannmeier has managed to row as far as their agreed destination at the Wannsee bridgehead. In the darkness Lorenz and Zander have landed on the Schwanenwerder not far from the lakeside house where the Goebbels children were living until a week ago.

'Like a Rhineland carnival queen.'

Dr Schenck is sitting drinking schnapps in the corridor in the upper bunker. As the doctors and nurses walked back to the Reich Chancellery after their meeting with Hitler, they came upon a big party of drinkers and were invited to join them. Two secretaries now appear with a third woman. Someone whispers to Schenck that this is Frau Hitler. She sits at one end of the table 'like a Rhineland carnival queen', knocking back the drink, dominating the conversation with chirpy stories. Schenck has never heard of her before, and certainly never met her. He can't tell whether the tremor in her voice is caused by a lisp or by alcohol.

3.00am.

In the Fuhrerbunker switchboard room, Rochus Misch is woken again as General Jodl's replies to Hitler's questions about a combined attack come through on the radio: '1. Wenck's spearhead is stuck south of Schwielow Lake.

2. Consequently, the 12th Army cannot continue its attack on Berlin.

3. The 9th Army is fully encircled.

4. Holste's corps has been forced into a defensive position. Attacks on Berlin have not advanced anywhere.'

There is no good news.

In frustration, Hitler orders Martin Bormann to send a message to Admiral Donitz: 'Immediate ruthless action must be taken against all traitors.' It is Heinrich Himmler he has in mind.

About 4.00am/6.00am Cairo time.

Twenty-year-old Pilot Officer Anthony Wedgwood Benn is cleaning five pairs of shoes. He is on leave, and together with other young RAF officers, is heading by train from their base near Cairo to Jerusalem. Wedgwood Benn has got up early to clean both his and his friends' shoes as he feels that it's good for him to do something he hates, plus he knows deep down he likes being thanked by others for small gestures such as this.

The papers say that the end of the war is in sight, and Wedgwood Benn hopes that the news will come when they are in Jerusalem. At this stage in his life he is a devout Christian, and for him the trip is a spiritual pilgrimage, and he has with him H.V. Morton's book In the Steps of the Master. He is keen on politics too (his father William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate, had been an MP and Secretary of State for India) so he is also reading Palestine A Land of Promise by a Dr Lowdermilk of the US Soil Conservation Commission.

Wedgwood Benn has only recently got his wings after finishing his pilot's training. Like many RAF cadets, he was sent by ship to the relative safety of Rhodesia to be taught to fly in old Tiger Moths. A few days ago, in his diary which he started in 1940 when still a pupil at Westminster School, and which he will continue for the rest of his life Wedgwood Benn confessed to being afraid of 'ditching, crashing, being taken prisoner, torture by j.a.ps, these things are working on my imagination...' Last June his brother Michael was killed in a flying accident, and his death has affected him deeply. Wedgwood Benn has sown his brother's wings on his own battledress, and when he flies he always wears Michael's gloves. The day after he heard the news, he flew his plane to a height of 6,000 feet and decided to do a spin, inspired by Michael's courage as a pilot.

He wrote in his diary that night, 'My voice is rather like his when it is m.u.f.fled and so I picked up my speaking tube and said 'h.e.l.lo James [as Anthony is called by his family], this is old Mikie speaking' but it made me cry so I stopped.'

Wedgwood Benn finishes cleaning the shoes, and the Palestine Railways locomotive carries on heading east through the desert for Lydda, where tomorrow the pilots will change trains for Jerusalem.

At the end of his leave Anthony Wedgwood Benn will be told he is being posted home, and in June he sails on the troopship Carthage. The general election campaign has started, and so he organises hustings on board ship and makes a speech ent.i.tled 'Why I Will Vote Labour'. After finishing his studies at Oxford, he will work as a magazine salesman and a BBC producer. Then in 1950 he will win the Bristol South East by-election, and so at 25 enter Parliament as the 'Baby' of the House, where he will remain until 2001.

At Stalag IV-C, the German guards come into Bert Ruffle's hut to get the men up and out to start work. Ruffle worked last night clearing out railway trucks, so he can stay in bed all day.

'How are we going to get past this grey building?'

'Neustroev! That grey building is the Reichstag!'

Dr Schenck is desperate for a pee. He gets up from the table of drinkers and realises that his need is too urgent for him to go all the way back to the Reich Chancellery. He hurries down the staircase to the lower bunker. It is normally guarded by two armed guards but they seem to have disappeared. The Fuhrerbunker is ghostly quiet except for the drone of the diesel generator and the more distant sounds of a boisterous party, somewhere in the Reich Chancellery. He creeps along the corridor, looking for the latrines. Through an open doorway he sees the Fuhrer standing by a table, leaning his weight on one hand, in deep conversation with Dr Haase.

Hitler is anxious that he and Eva die at exactly the same moment. He wants to use a foolproof method of cyanide and shooting. They agree that he will have two pistols, in case one jams, and two cyanide capsules, in case one is a dud. Eva Braun will also have two capsules. Hitler will put one capsule in his mouth and hold the pistol at eyebrow level at a right angle, the muzzle on his temple. He will fire and bite simultaneously.

Haase then goes through to Eva Braun. She is worried that she will lose her resolve if Hitler dies first. Haase tells her to bite the moment she hears a shot. She has a pistol in reserve, but she doesn't want to use it.

In the Ministry of the Interior, about 600 yards from the Reich Chancellery, a Soviet kitchen has been set up in the bas.e.m.e.nt. A vat of porridge is being hurriedly cooked as an early breakfast for the troops who are about to take part in a dawn a.s.sault on the Reichstag. Stalin has identified this government building as the one that symbolises control of Berlin. He has ordered that the red flag should be flying from the Reichstag rooftop in time for Russia's national May Day holiday tomorrow.

On the top floors of the ministry, the battle for Berlin is still being fought. As Russian soldiers make their way up the stairs, German defenders are attacking them with grenades and sub-machine guns.

On the first floor, a centre of military operations has been set up. Captain Neustroev, the battalion commander who is about to lead the a.s.sault on the Reichstag, is studying a map with his regimental commander. Neustroev is struggling to get his bearings.

'How are we going to get past this grey building?'

'Neustroev!' the senior commander exclaims, 'that grey building is the Reichstag!'

Neustroev is stunned. He had not realised how close they were to their ultimate target.

General Shatilov, who is in overall command of the 150th Rifle Division, is bursting with excitement. He can't resist informing the Front headquarters that the Reichstag is as good as won. He knows Stalin wants the news in time for tomorrow's May Day parade.

4.30am.

As the first light of dawn begins to brighten the smoky Berlin sky, the escaping officers Boldt, Weiss and von Loringhoven can just make out three Russian tanks their guns pointing in the direction of Pichelsdorf Bridge. The Hitler Youth have lost control of it, but remain in position on the far side. As the three officers approach there is no reaction from the Russian tanks, the Russian soldiers are sleeping. The officers are able to crawl unnoticed across the bridge, and slip down to the far bank. It is the start of a cold, wet day.

In the Fuhrerbunker Hitler retires to bed. The party of drinkers in the upper bunker disperses and Eva Hitler goes down to her room. Schenck and the nurses make their way back to the Reich Chancellery. Upstairs, in the new Reich Chancellery building, a raucous party is still in full swing, despite the risk of sh.e.l.ling. Behind the door of the Chancellery dental surgery a woman is being strapped into the dentist's chair. By day this room is used for tooth extractions, by night it is the most popular place to have s.e.x.

In the Ministry of the Interior breakfast is dished up; the Russian soldiers who are going to lead the attack on the Reichstag queue for dollops of undercooked porridge.

German snipers are in position in the Reichstag itself and in the nearby Kroll Opera House. There are about 5,000 German troops defending the Reichstag; they are made up of SS, regular army, Home Guard, Hitler Youth and 250 sailors who have been airlifted into Berlin in the past week. The Germans have dug a network of defensive channels around the Reichstag. The centrepiece is a moat, which was created when sh.e.l.ling smashed an underground tunnel, allowing water to seep through from the River Spree.

5.00am.

Sisi Wilczek finally arrives at her family home of Moosham Castle, near Salzberg. It has been snowing during the night and Sisi and her friend Missie Va.s.siltchikov, both wearing their restrictive nurses uniforms, had to dig the car out of a drift about an hour ago. Missie has worked with Sisi in Vienna but has never visited Moosham Castle before. She is amazed at the size of it a medieval battlement surrounding an entire village. The Wilczeks are one of the richest families in the Hapsburg Empire. Sisi hands her parents the fortune contained in the s...o...b..x that she has managed to smuggle out of Vienna, and she and Missie collapse with exhaustion into a four-poster bed.

In Berlin heavy sh.e.l.ling shakes the Reich Chancellery bunkers.

In the bas.e.m.e.nt of the Ministry of the interior, the company of Russian soldiers of the 150th Rifle Division, who are going to lead the attack on the Reichstag, have finished their breakfast and are checking their weapons.

6.00am/midnight Central War Time (CWT).

On the second floor of the makeshift hospital in the camp outside Konigsberg, Dr von Lehndorff has discovered that a number of his patients died in the night. Some have died in their beds; others have died in the corridor on their way to the latrine buckets. One died while squatting on a bucket. Von Lehndorff starts to help carry the dead bodies into a bathroom.

Soon there are 36 bodies stacked several metres high; most are almost naked as other patients have taken their clothes to keep warm. Von Lehndorff notices that they are all men; women seem to be able to survive better. Although some of the dead have their papers, von Lehndorff knows that the Russians won't bother to record their deaths; there will be no official account of where or how they died. Those that have survived have lost the will to live.

General Mohnke, commander of the Zitadelle, the government district in central Berlin which includes the Reich Chancelleries, is summoned to Hitler's rooms in the Fuhrerbunker. Hitler is sitting in a chair beside his bed wearing a black satin dressing gown on top of his nightshirt and soft leather slippers. He wants to know the latest on the Russian position.

'They have reached the Tiergarten, somewhere between 170 and 250 feet from the Reich Chancellery. On all sides they are within a few hundred yards of the Reich Chancellery, but for now their progress has been halted.'

'How long can we hold out?'

'Twenty or 24 hours at most, Mein Fuhrer.'

'In the end these decadent Western democracies will fail.'

'Jawohl, Mein Fuhrer.'

Hitler stands up and shakes Mohnke's hand. 'Good luck and thank you. It wasn't only for Germany!'

The first company of Russian soldiers from the 150th Rifle Division battalions charge out of the Ministry of the Interior, heading for the Reichstag across Konigsplatz. The wide leafy square at the heart of Berlin's government district is now a cratered wasteland. The soldiers run for about 50 metres before they are thrown to the ground by a hurricane of German fire from the Reichstag building on one side and from the Kroll Opera House on the other. Meanwhile, a premature message of triumph is radioed to Moscow from General Shatilov, commander of the 150th Rifles. Stalin is informed that the Reichstag has been taken.

The presses of the Chicago Herald-American are printing their first editions. They carry the latest dispatch from their young correspondent, John F. Kennedy, at the international conference in San Francisco that's deciding the shape of the United Nations.

'There is a heritage of 25 years of distrust between Russia and the rest of the world that cannot be overcome completely for a good many years... This week in San Francisco will be a decisive one in RussianAmerican affairs. It will be a real test of whether the Russians and Americans can get along.'

This will be a major theme of Kennedy's presidency. In fact, he will recruit for his administration many veterans of the San Francisco conference.

The conference marks a turning point in JFK's life. In a few days' time he will say to close friend Charles Spalding, 'Charlie, I've made up my mind I'm going into politics.'

'Geez, Jack, that's terrific! You can go all the way!'

'Really?'

'All the way!'

Although his time in San Francisco was when the young JFK began to take life more seriously, he still enjoyed a busy social life. One evening, during the six weeks of the conference, lying on his hotel bed dressed for a black-tie dinner, holding a c.o.c.ktail in one hand and a telephone in the other, he left a message for the editor of the Chicago Herald-American.