Capture of Hamburg

• 1. Introduction

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  The Capture of Hamburg was one of the last battles fought on the Western Front of the Second World War. It unfolded in Lower Saxony between the 18th of April and the 3rd of May 1945. By then the Red Army was besieging Berlin, and the war in the west was dissolving. Yet in the north, the remaining troops of the German 1st Parachute Army still meant to hold Hamburg against the British XII Corps. The British met fierce resistance as they approached. Why would anyone keep fighting so late in the war? Who was actually left to defend the city? And what finally persuaded its commanders to give it up?

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• 2. Collapse in the West

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  Walter Model commanded Army Group B, the last effective German defence in the west. After the Western Allies crossed the Rhine River, this force of three armies was encircled and captured by the American 1st and 9th Armies. With it went much of Germany's ability to organize a defence. Afterward the Germans could resist only in a few cities, and the units inside them could barely communicate with one another.

  Lieutenant General Miles C. Dempsey commanded the British Second Army, which supplied the main British thrust across the north. The wider Allied advance had the Americans pushing through the centre while the British held the northern flank. Dempsey's objective was to cross northern Germany and drive on toward Berlin.

  Compared with the Americans farther south, the British met little resistance and moved at a steady, fast pace. The last German forces in the north were the 1st Parachute Army and the new Army Group Northwest. Their high command, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, sat in Berlin under Soviet siege. It refused to send them reinforcements.

  At Bremen, the Germans managed to hold the British for a week. The survivors then retreated to the Jutland peninsula. After the British captured Soltau, the 7th Armoured Division stood poised to attack Hamburg, the last city where the Germans intended to make a stand.

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• 3. Closing on the Elbe

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  On the 18th of April, the 7th Armoured Division captured Welle and Tostedt. It entered Hollenstedt the following day. The division was heading for Harburg and for the River Elbe, directly across from Hamburg. To the south of the city, the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division attacked the town of Uelzen. Elements of XII Corps struck Hamburg itself from the northwest. By this point the Germans had built up defences in Harburg.

  On the 20th of April, the 7th Division took Daerstorf, 13 km west of the city. Royal Horse Artillery Forward Observation Officers reached the Elbe and began directing artillery fire onto troops and trains on the far side of the river. The same day, the 131st Infantry Brigade captured Vahrendorf, just two miles south of Harburg. The division then halted for five days, short of Hamburg, to set up a perimeter and prepare its assault.

  On the 26th of April, the 12th SS Reinforcement Regiment counter-attacked at Vahrendorf. Hitler Youth, Hamburg sailors and policemen supported the regiment, along with 88 mm guns and 75 mm howitzers. The Germans pushed into the town centre but were driven back once British tanks arrived. The fighting lasted until the next day, when the Germans withdrew to Harburg. They left behind 60 dead and lost 70 men as prisoners.

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• 4. A Patchwork Defence

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  The troops of the 1st Parachute Army had become an improvised mixture by late April. A few SS men stood alongside paratroopers, Volkssturm militia and regular Wehrmacht soldiers. Firemen were part of the effort too, backing the sailors, police and Hitler Youth already in the line. The 88 mm guns supporting them were no longer needed for air defence, so they were turned on the ground battle instead.

  South of Hamburg, the woods still sheltered a scattering of German units. They included a tank destroyer battalion, a Hungarian SS unit and many Panzerfaust anti-tank troops. The British had bypassed this area in their advance and were now mopping it up. The 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division, supported by the 1st Royal Tank Regiment, assaulted the woods and captured every German soldier remaining there. In all, the haul came to 2,000 men.

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• 5. White Flags

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  On the 28th of April, the 5th Royal Tank Regiment, the 9th Durham Light Infantry and the 1st Rifle Brigade captured Jesteburg and Hittfeld. They reached the autobahn there. The Germans responded by blowing up parts of the autobahn at Hittfeld, which slowed the British advance.

  That same day, the 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery began shelling the Phoenix Rubber Works in Hamburg. The bombardment eventually brought out a white flag delegation. On the 29th of April, a deputation from the city came out to discuss surrender.

  Adolf Hitler killed himself in Berlin on the 30th of April. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, who commanded the forces in the north, then ordered General Alwin Wolz to discuss surrendering Hamburg to the British. On the 1st of May, Wolz's staff car approached D Company of the 9th Durham Light Infantry under a white flag.

  Wolz and a small German delegation arrived at Division HQ on the 2nd of May. He formally surrendered Hamburg on the 3rd. That same afternoon, the 11th Hussars led the 7th Armoured Division into the ruined city.

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• 6. After the Fall

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  Most of the surviving troops of the 1st Parachute Army and Army Group Northwest withdrew into the Jutland peninsula after the city fell. The majority of them reached Kiel. There they met soldiers of Army Group Vistula, who were fleeing the Soviets from the Eastern Front.

  The 7th Armoured Division, meanwhile, advanced unopposed to Lübeck. News of the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath reached the division there on the 4th of May. The German Instrument of Surrender followed on the 8th of May.

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