Chapter Nineteen - This Heart is Now Dead

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Chapter Nineteen
This Heart Is Now Dead
Vienna, Bastogne, Wiesbaden
January- February 1945
 
 In this chapter we learn that Oskar was indeed killed in action, and the young women of the Women's Baracks rally round Hilda. In Belgium, the day after the medals ceremony, the 12th Panzers continue to Bourcy and Bastogne to quell the Allied advance there. After five days, they reach Mageret, where there is hand-to-hand street fighting. Rudi's company take an important hill, but Mageret is the end of the Ardennes campaign by 10 January. In Vienna, Dr. Ebner is arrested, and the city is carpet bombed, not for the first time. At the Gestapo, a defence unit is formed, including the girls.  Rudi's company return to Germany and arrive at Wiesbaden airfield in early February. There he is charged with teaching new recruits seconded from the air force and navy, and has a disturbing encounter with Major Müller, which causes him a spiritual crisis. He writes to Bekka, aware that they are being bombed, with regret that he has no furlough. In Prague Sophie, Fritz and family are awaiting the arrival of the Russians and British, and Sophie receives word that Franz has been killed in action. Gauleiter von Schirach goes to Berlin to plead with Wolf to end the war before more lives are lost needlessly. 
 
Death Notice:
Reichspost Stamp:

Mageret:
 
The Lightning Strike:
Vienna:
Wiesbaden Flugplatz:
Baldur von Schirach and Wolf: 
Tanks entrained for the Eastern Front: 

 Hitlerjugend cufftitles:
As worn, on the left sleeve:
12th SS panzer division overview- a re-enactor explains the gear.
Inside The Tanks: The Jagdpanther - a short vid exploring the YAG
The Nazi's Final Push - The Battle of The Bulge - short vid. Excellent. Elsenborn, little known, is mentioned.
The Enemy Within: Homosexuality in the Third Reich, 1933-1945 - PDF. 'Actual policy toward homosexuals in the Third Reich was by no means consistent. This paper examines the components of Nazi racial doctrines and the subtle ways in which the hyper-masculine ethos of the regime in fact encouraged male bonding and homosexual behavior.'
The death of King Ludwig II -Cambridge University abstract, with sources.
The MAIN Reason Why Germany Lost WW2 - OIL - From TIKHistory, excellent. 'The First War for Oil.'

 

 

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