Deepaktopzone

  On this day 3rd May 1945. Admiral Dönitz established the seat of his government in Flensburg. Dönitz was surprised when he learned he had been named Hitler’s successor, and he was not alone. When General of the Waffen SS  Obergruppenfürer  Felix Steiner heard of Dönitz’s appointment, Steiner reportedly responded “Who is this Herr Dönitz?” Dönitz later claimed that Hitler made this choice “because he felt, doubtlessly, that only a reasonable man with an honest reputation as a sailor could make a decent peace.” Dönitz later told his American captors that he immediately set about surrendering German forces after assuming power, but in fact, the admiral prolonged the war as long as possible. As Germany’s military situation deteriorated, Dönitz attempted to negotiate a favorable surrender with the western allies in order to avoid abandoning German soldiers and equipment to the Soviet Union. Dönitz knew that Soviet captivity would likely mean death for hundreds of thousands of German soldi

  Black Gold . The lifeblood of any modern war machine, and the Nazis knew it. They craved it, needed it to fuel their mechanized hordes, the panzers that rolled across Europe and the Luftwaffe that darkened the skies. But their thirst for oil would prove to be their Achilles' heel, a fatal flaw in their grand design for conquest. Before the war even started, the Nazis were stockpiling oil, aware of their own vulnerability. They gobbled up oil fields in Austria and Czechoslovakia like a starving wolf, but it wasn't enough to sustain their hunger. They turned their eyes east, to the oil-rich Caucasus region of the Soviet Union, a prize they believed would secure their victory. Operation Barbarossa, their brutal invasion of the Soviet Union, was fueled in part by this desperate need for oil. But the Red Army wasn't going down without a fight. They scorched the earth, leaving the Nazis with nothing but smoldering ruins and empty pipelines. The Nazis were forced to rely on Roma