Chapter 31 Chapter 6 The aggression is doomed to failure (the Soviet army captures Berlin and Germany surrenders)

As the Allied forces landed in Normandy and successfully opened up the second battlefield, the German army fell into the quagmire of two-front warfare.In particular, in order to implement the Battle of Ardennes, the German army deployed a large number of elite troops to counterattack the Allied forces on the western front, which relieved the pressure on the Soviet army on the eastern front. Beginning on January 13, 1945, the Soviet Belarusian Second and Third Fronts and the first part of the Baltic Front, with the cooperation of the Baltic Fleet, carried out the East Prussian Campaign, which severely damaged the German forces in East Prussia and northern Poland.

East Prussia is the most eastern piece of land in Germany. During the Teutonic Knights, it was the Principality of Prussia, and later a province of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was incorporated into the German Empire in 1871.East Prussia is the birthplace of the Hohenzollern dynasty, and its status in the hearts of German nobles is very sacred. Prussian kings of all generations were crowned in Königsberg in East Prussia, where many Junker landowners' estates are located.Geographically, East Prussia is a barrier to guard the capital Berlin.If this place is lost, Berlin will be in danger. Therefore, around East Prussia, the Soviet and German armies fought fiercely.For this purpose, the Soviet army invested a total of about 1.67 million troops in the land, sea, and air forces, including the Baltic Fleet and two air force groups, and established a powerful assault group to ensure an overwhelming advantage over the German army in terms of strength.After nearly four months of fierce fighting between the two sides, the Soviet army finally took over most of East Prussia and part of northern Poland, clearing the way to Berlin.

After the German army lost East Prussia, it lost an important national economic zone.Moreover, 25 divisions of the German army were wiped out and 12 divisions were severely damaged, which greatly weakened the already stretched strength.After the Soviet army captured East Prussia, the Baltic Fleet transferred its combat power to the southwestern Baltic Sea, destroying the German sea line of communication. On the Eastern Front, with the retreat of the German army, several vassal states gathered by Nazi Germany in southeastern Europe were pushed to the forefront of the war, and they faced the pressure of the Soviet army's imminent invasion of the mainland.What was the fate of these countries as Nazi Germany was about to fall?In fact, these countries have no choice.Among these countries, some have been absorbed and merged, such as Austria and the Czech Republic; some have been forced to cooperate with Germany, such as Bulgaria; among them, Romania and Hungary have followed Germany most closely.

Since Antonescu established a pro-Nazi totalitarian rule, Romania has followed Germany's domestic and foreign policies, and even its title is imitating Hitler.Antonescu called himself the "head of state", and he also established a fascist organization called the "Iron Guard", declaring the "Iron Guard" as the only legal political party in the country.He set up prisons and concentration camps everywhere, and used extremely cruel means to persecute the opposition.Antonescu also followed Hitler to persecute the Jews. During World War II, 500,000 Romanian Jews were killed.

When Antonescu first came to power, he signed a series of agreements with Germany, stipulating that Romania should develop its own economy in accordance with Germany's needs and Hitler's "New European Order", improve its transportation, hire German experts to manage the economy, and reduce Romania's The price comparison between coins and marks.Antonescu took it all. Not to mention, with the consent of Antonescu, the German army entered Romania and occupied Romania's oil mining areas and the most important strategic strongholds. On November 23, 1940, Romania officially joined the axis of Germany, Italy and Japan.From this time on, Antonescu met Hitler four times within half a year and assured him that Romania would unconditionally participate in the war against the Soviet Union.Sure enough, on June 22 of the same year, the Romanian army followed the German army to attack the Soviet Union. Since then, the Romanian army has embarked on a road of no return.

Antonescu's internal and external policies seriously violate public opinion and have few supporters.Antonescu once said that only his younger brother supported his decision.But Romania's main political parties, the National Peasant Party and the National Liberal Party, had to tolerate and support Antonescu in the face of German pressure, which allowed his regime to consolidate. The Romanian Communist Party has always opposed Antonescu, especially after Romania participated in the anti-Soviet war, the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party immediately issued a statement condemning the war against the Soviet Union.

In February 1943, German and Romanian armies were defeated at the Battle of Stalingrad. In June, at the initiative of the Romanian Communist Party, Romania secretly established the Anti-Hitler Patriotic Front.At this time, with the change of the entire war situation, the defeat of Nazi Germany was already evident, and the main political parties in Romania increasingly pinned their hopes on Western allies such as Britain and the United States. In March 1944, with the consent of Antonescu, the Romanian emissary went to Cairo to secretly contact with the British and American representatives. On April 12, the Soviet representative handed over the armistice conditions negotiated with the allies in advance to the Romanian secret envoy.According to the conditions of this armistice, Romania must transfer to the anti-fascist alliance and fight against Germany.

As the war progressed, the international situation became more and more favorable to the Romanians' anti-fascist struggle. On May 1, 1944, the Romanian Social Democratic Party reached an agreement to establish a workers' united front. On June 20, the leaders of the National Peasant Party and the National Liberal Party were so worried that their parties would be excluded from the new state power that they reluctantly agreed to cooperate with the Romanian Communist Party. On June 20, 1944, representatives of the Romanian Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party, the National Peasant Party and the National Liberal Party signed an agreement to establish the National Democratic Union.The agreement stipulates: immediately conclude an armistice agreement with the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States; transfer to the side of the anti-Hitler alliance; liberate the motherland and restore the country's independence and sovereignty.The establishment of this alliance marked the formation of the Romanian anti-fascist national united front.

As early as the spring of 1944, the Romanian Communist Party had started to establish a patriotic guard, purchasing weapons and ammunition from the Romanian Army arsenal and patriotic officers.The leaders of the Romanian Communist Party also knew the principle of "power grows out of the barrel of a gun" and knew that without the participation of the army, the uprising would be difficult to succeed. Therefore, they strengthened their work in the army.The situation of the war also prompted many patriotic officers and soldiers to participate in the uprising. In the middle of the night of June 13, 1944, a meeting of the Communist Party, patriotic military officers and representatives of the court was held at the secret residence of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party.This meeting was very important, finalizing the specific plan for the armed uprising, preparing to hold an armed uprising, overthrowing Antonescu's dictatorship, and turning Romania to the side of the anti-fascist alliance.The main force of the uprising was the Romanian army stationed in the country, with 740,000 people, close to two-thirds of the active Romanian soldiers at that time.

On the night of August 9th, the communists entered the concentration camp disguised as government army officers and used forged instructions to help the leader of the Romanian Communist Party, George U, escape from prison.After Georgieu was released from prison, he directly participated in the leadership of the uprising. On August 21, the Soviet army captured Iasi and began to advance to the hinterland of Romania.At the same time, the Royal Palace of Romania held a meeting attended by the king and senior generals of the military council, and decided to launch an uprising on August 26. By this time, Antonescu was still dreaming.On August 23, he held an emergency meeting of the government and proposed to implement a comprehensive mobilization to turn the whole of Romania into a big battlefield.In order to make the general mobilization seem justifiable, Antonescu also plans to go to the palace to meet King Mihai in the afternoon, and the king will publish the "Letter to the People of the Country".

But at this time the king had already abandoned Antonescu and immediately reported the matter to the Romanian Communist Party.Based on this situation, the Romanian Communist Party made a decisive decision and decided to take the opportunity to arrest Antonescu and launch an uprising in advance.That afternoon, when Antonescu arrived at the palace by car, the palace guards immediately arrested him.Then, in the name of convening a palace meeting, the king summoned the government's military ministers, interior ministers and other high-ranking officials into the palace and arrested them one by one. The whole process went very smoothly.Thus the Antonescu regime collapsed.Then the king issued a statement announcing the abolition of the fascist dictatorship and the cessation of military operations against the allies.From the night of the same day to the early morning of the next day, Romania established a government composed of soldiers and technicians, and the political parties participating in the National Democratic League also successively sent representatives to join the new government. Antonescu's capture was the signal for an armed uprising.That night, after hearing the news, the Romanian army and the Patriotic Guard launched uprisings one after another.Thousands of workers also took up arms and joined the uprising.The funniest thing is that Antonescu's guards joined the uprising that day.It can be seen how unpopular Antonescu is! Hitler was shocked when he learned that the Antonescu regime had been overthrown, and immediately ordered the South Ukrainian Army to take all measures to restore order in Romania and wipe out the king and the coup d'état. The fiercest fighting of the uprising took place in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.Here is the headquarters of the German Army.In order to suppress the uprising, the German army first fired bombardment, and then dispatched the air force and motorized troops to launch a fierce attack on the insurgents, but the uprising team resisted tenaciously and withstood the German offensive.The uprising team called on the Romanian residents to rise up and defend the capital, which quickly received positive responses from the workers in the capital, and some freed Soviet prisoners of war also actively participated in the battle.At this time, the German army was really "drowned into the vast ocean of the people's war", did not get any cheap, and was quickly defeated by the uprising team. By the 28th, the uprising team had defeated and annihilated the German army in Bucharest and its suburbs, and captured 6,700 German soldiers, including 7 generals and 358 officers.The former boss is now a prisoner. I don't know how the German army feels. While heavy fighting was taking place in Bucharest, uprisings were underway in other parts of Romania.By August 31, two-thirds of the territory of Romania had been cleared of German troops, those who were still alive were captured, and those who were not captured were killed.Under the attack of the uprising team, the German army lost almost 6 divisions and captured more than 53,000 people, including 14 generals and 1,124 officers, and more than 5,000 people were killed. On August 29, the new Romanian government sent a delegation to Moscow to hold armistice negotiations with the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and other allies. On September 12, Romania signed an armistice agreement with the Allies, and will send 12 divisions to participate in the war against Germany. On September 7, Romania declared war on Hungary ruled by the fascist dictator Horthy. In early October, the Romanian army and the Soviet army advanced to the Romanian border. On October 25, all Romania was restored. After this, the Romanian army took advantage of the victory and took part in the battles for the liberation of Hungary and Czechoslovakia.Since the uprising on August 23, the Romanian army has sent more than 540,000 people to participate in the anti-fascist war, and about 170,000 officers and soldiers died heroically.Later, August 23 was designated as Romania's National Day. After Romania was liberated, an uprising broke out in Bulgaria, another "little brother" of Germany on the night of September 8, and the new government soon joined the anti-fascist camp. Although Hungary joined the Axis group as early as the beginning of 1939, it was relatively neutral in the early days of World War II.After Germany defeated France, Horthy believed that Hungary should join the war, so that it could gain some benefits from the war. In April 1941, Hungary sent 12 brigades to cooperate with the German invasion of Yugoslavia.On the issue of attacking the Soviet Union, Horthy hesitated, but under Hitler's constant urging, he decided to take a gamble.As a result, 250,000 Hungarian soldiers were sent to the Soviet battlefield, including Horthy's eldest son. By 1943, the situation of the war became clearer, and Germany began to show signs of failure.In the Battle of Stalingrad, the Hungarian Second Army was almost wiped out, which shocked Horthy.He asked Hitler several times to withdraw Hungarian troops abroad, but was firmly opposed by Hitler and accused Horthy of betrayal.In desperation, Horthy had to secretly contact the allies, hoping to negotiate a peace as soon as possible so that Hungary would withdraw from the war. However, German intelligence agencies soon learned of the outrageous behavior of the head of state's "staunch ally".Hitler himself was furious about this, but he didn't want to lose Horthy's card just yet.So Horthy was invited to Germany to accept Hitler's earnest dissuasion and hysterical reprimand.Hitler had a characteristic when he was training people. He was always eloquent and did not give people a chance to breathe. Horthy, who was usually in charge of the wind and rain in Hungary, couldn't stand it at all.You know, when Horthy became a general, Hitler was just a corporal!Ultimately, the talks broke up badly. Hitler's methods have always been ruthless. When Horthy was still in Germany, he lost no time in sending a large number of SS troops to control the entire territory of Hungary.When Horthy returned to Hungary, he was depressed to find that his country had been "protected" by the Germans. By October 1944, only Hungary remained in Europe as an "ally" of Nazi Germany.At this time, Horthy couldn't sit still anymore, he couldn't let Hungary be buried with Germany.Horthy frequently sent secret envoys to contact the allies and seek peace talks. Hitler was furious when he knew this situation, and immediately summoned the famous Skorzeny, and asked him to go to Budapest immediately to stop Horthy.You know, at this time, Hungary is too important to Germany, and 30% of Germany's oil is supplied by Hungary. On October 11, Horthy accepted the Allied armistice terms. On the 15th, Horthy announced the Hungarian armistice statement on the radio.Having dealt with Hitler so many times, Holthy already had a deep understanding of Hitler and knew that Hitler was likely to take extreme actions, so he sent his cronies to control the army in advance. But Skorzeny was not a vegetarian. In the early morning of the 16th, he led a commando to raid Burgburg, Horthy's base camp.In just 20 minutes, Skorzeny overpowered Horthy's guards and captured Horthy alive.The commandos only paid the price of sacrificing 4 people.The German SS and the Hungarian fascist party "Arrow Cross" controlled key areas of Budapest. At this time, Horthy saw that the situation was over, so he had to issue a resignation statement and handed over the power to Ferenc, the leader of the "Arrow Cross" party.Subsequently, the regent who had ruled Hungary for 24 years was put on a train bound for Germany, and never set foot on his homeland again. After arriving in Germany, Horthy was put under house arrest as a "guest of the head of state" until he was captured by the US military after the fall of the Third Reich.Horthy attended the Nuremberg trials as a witness, not a war criminal.Because the Hungarian army was suspected of massacring tens of thousands of people in Yugoslavia during World War II, Yugoslavia strongly demanded Horthy's extradition for war crimes.However, under the influence of the United States, the court did not do so. In 1946, Horthy was acquitted of all charges. Since then, Horthy has moved to live in Portugal.At the end of his life, he wrote a biography called "A Life for Hungary".In the book, he reviewed his life, criticized the slaughter of Hungary by the Allies after World War I, and justified his war with Hitler. On February 9, 1957, Horthy died in Portugal.It is worth mentioning that in his later years, Horthy was deeply concerned about the "Hungarian incident" that occurred in 1956. He claimed that as long as there was one Russian soldier left in Hungary, his body would not return to the motherland.Horthy's descendants carried out his last wish. Horthy's body was returned to his hometown for burial in 1993, when Russia withdrew its last soldiers from Hungary. After the Hungarian fascist party "Arrow Cross" came to power, it formed a new pro-German government-the last puppet regime under the control of Nazi Germany.At the same time, the High Command of the Hungarian Army was completely under the control of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. On November 4, Ferenc, the leader of the "Arrow Cross" party, was appointed as the national leader.In this way, Hungary continued to be tied to the chariot of Nazi Germany, driving towards the abyss of destruction. On October 6, 1944, the Soviet army launched a large-scale attack on Hungary, intending to annihilate the Axis forces in Hungary and occupy Hungary in one fell swoop.After nearly a month of fierce fighting, the Soviet army captured most of the territory in eastern Hungary and arrived near the capital Budapest at the end of October. In Stalin's eyes, Budapest was an extremely important prize.If the Soviet army can quickly take Budapest and Vienna, this will be a very important bargaining chip for him at the upcoming Yalta Conference.Stalin even suggested to Churchill that the Soviet army would definitely take Budapest before Christmas.Therefore, on October 28, Stalin ordered the Soviet army to "must capture Budapest in the shortest possible time". It was the Soviet Ukrainian Second Front that was tasked with attacking Budapest. On October 29, the Ukrainian Second Front suddenly launched an offensive while the German army had no heavy troops near Budapest.By November 2, the Soviet army had reached 15 kilometers from Budapest.But at this time, German reinforcements arrived, and the advance of the Soviet army was blocked. On November 11, the Soviet army launched a second offensive. After 16 days of fighting, it still failed to achieve the expected results. On December 5, the Soviet army launched a third attack, but the gains were still very small. On Christmas morning, the Soviet army concentrated artillery fire on the German "commander's hall" armored division to carry out a devastating bombardment.By December 26, the Soviet army had completed the encirclement of the German Army Group in Budapest. In January 1945, the German army violently stormed the encirclement in an attempt to defeat the Ukrainian Third Front and rescue the besieged troops.After several fierce battles, the Soviet army crushed the German assault.A journalist witnessed the scene at the time: "This is a terrible battle. After Stalingrad, we have never seen such a scene... The streets and courtyards are full of corpses. All under a giant cloak of dust and smoke." On January 14, the Hungarian infantry and assault artillery units fought a bloody battle with the Romanian 7th Infantry Corps at the Eastern Railway Station.Although the performance of the Hungarian army was relatively passive throughout the Battle of Budapest, the Hungarians fought very bravely in the battle with Hungary's rival Romania this time.The fight was fought from track to track, from trains to waiting halls. On the 16th, the numerically superior Hungarian defenders fought hand-to-hand with the exhausted Romanian army in the ruins of the collapsed railway station.The exhausted Romanians were finally driven to the banks of the Danube, and the Seventh Romanian Infantry Corps suffered 11,000 casualties. On January 18, Soviet troops captured Pest, east of Budapest.By the end of January, the Battle of Budapest had turned into a desperate battle for the Germans: air supplies, which were already scarce, were almost completely cut off, and soldiers' guns were useless due to lack of ammunition.A German soldier said sarcastically: "We are brandishing unloaded rifles like medieval knights and poking them at the Russians like spears." spread.The morale of the Hungarian army was also shaken, and a large number of soldiers began to drop their weapons and flee to the Soviet positions. On February 5, the fierce battle had spread to the last bastion of the German army-the Buda Palace area on Castle Hill, where the last German artillery was deployed.Shouting "Ulla", the Soviet soldiers recklessly tore a gap in the defense line.At this time, the street fighting was so fierce that it was unimaginable that the SS soldiers even pried open the grave in the cemetery, dug out the coffin, and surrounded the tomb with all the items that could be found, and used it as a "trench" to resist until the end. until the death.The Soviet soldiers attacking the "tomb foxhole" position could only use the tombstone as a cover and move forward step by step.Soviet soldiers smashed grenades into the graves guarded by the Germans. The Germans picked up the smoking grenades and threw them back. After the grenades exploded, the shrapnel flying horizontally caused continuous casualties.The red-eyed Soviet army even jumped into the grave and started a hand-to-hand fight with the SS soldiers. The two sides fought in a small space wielding butts, bayonets and engineer shovels until the grave was filled again with the bodies of SS or Soviet soldiers. The battle has reached this level, and the German army has no hope of winning, but Hitler just won't let the German army break out.You know, the German army guarding Budapest is mainly the SS and the elite "Commander Hall" armored division, all of which are elite troops in Hitler's hands.But Hitler just didn't let them break through. To make them make unnecessary sacrifices in Budapest would at most consume the vital strength of the Soviet army. Under these circumstances, the commander of the garrison, the SS General Weidenbruch, defied Hitler's order and ordered a breakout on February 11.But it was too late. In the end, only 785 of the more than 70,000 defenders escaped from the encirclement, and the elite troops guarding Budapest were wiped out. In the Battle of Budapest, the Hungarian civilians suffered the most from the flames of war, and the number of civilian casualties was as high as 76,000!A Hungarian woman who was only 20 years old at the time recorded in her diary: "Our neighbor, a teacher who was 5 months pregnant, was gang-raped by 5 Russian soldiers in broad daylight. This unfortunate woman finally cut off her penis. Arteries...Husbands who tried to protect their wives were beaten to death by the Russians like dogs...The streets were littered with naked German corpses from which the Russians stripped everything available, tanks and trucks passed without slowing down These corpses were run over..." According to statistics, by the end of March 1945, about 5,000 Hungarian women had been raped to death or committed suicide in the Budapest area. The flames of war not only brought untold trauma to the Hungarian people, but also to the city. This was the most devastating of the 15 sieges in Budapest's history.75% of the buildings in the city were destroyed, and many famous buildings such as the Buda Palace, the Congress Hall, and the National Theater were almost completely destroyed.Hungary paid a heavy price for getting rid of Hitler's rule. At the end of 2004, when the Czech government was preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the capital Prague from Nazi Germany, Czech officials revealed the "last secret of World War II": Prague was not what it was written in history textbooks in the past, was liberated by the Soviet Red Army.What liberated Prague was actually an army that betrayed the Soviet Union, and the leader of this army was Vlasov, the famous Soviet traitor. Before the Prague uprising, Churchill had promised the Czech National Council, which was leading the uprising, that he would drop weapons on them by air.But Stalin disapproved of Churchill because if the Czechs liberated Prague themselves, the Soviets would lose control of the land.In the eyes of high-level U.S. government officials, Prague does not have much political significance to the United States. Therefore, Prague and the Czech Republic, like the entire Eastern Europe, will become the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. In April 1945, Hitler decided that the Soviet army's advance to Berlin was just a feint gesture, and the real goal was to capture Prague.Although Nazi Germany was about to fall at this time, and Hitler had been alive for less than a month, he sent three additional SS armored divisions to Prague. At the moment when Germany was about to perish, that is, at the end of April 1945, an anti-fascist armed uprising broke out in Czechoslovakia, and the capital Prague was quickly occupied by the rebels.However, at that time, both the British and American allies and the Soviet army were quite a long way from Prague.Due to the lack of strong support, the insurgents were ruthlessly suppressed, the German SS went on a killing spree, and Prague was shrouded in a bloody storm. At the critical moment, the Czech National Committee, which led the uprising, was hungry and looked all over the world for someone who could lend a helping hand to Prague.Finally, they set their sights on the "Russian Liberation Army" led by Vlasov. The station of the "Russian Liberation Army" at this time is only half an hour's drive from Prague.The leaders of the rebel army sent representatives to find the first division of the "Russian Liberation Army".The division commander Bunjachenko believed that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity "anyway". He persuaded Vlasov to help the insurgents, thinking that if they helped the insurgents, the future Czechoslovak government would provide "Russian Liberation Army" with Political asylum, or interceding for them before the allies. At this time, Vlasov was also seeking a way out after the war. He deeply agreed with Bunyachenko's statement, so he ordered the troops of the "Russian Liberation Army" to go to Prague immediately, turn their guns, and fight the Germans. On May 5, 1945, the "Russian Liberation Army" with strong troops began to enter Prague.At that time, the rebel army was fighting bloody battles with the German army. On the evening of May 7, the "Russian Liberation Army" captured the main part of the city, and the German army, which was attacked from inside and outside, was forced to retreat from Prague. After Stalin learned of what the "Russian Liberation Army" was doing in Prague, he immediately put pressure on the newly established Czech government and ordered the Soviet Union's First Ukrainian Front to speed up its march to Prague.At the same time, due to pressure from the Soviet Union, Eisenhower vetoed the proposal of General Patton of the US Third Army to seize Prague immediately. Under such circumstances, under pressure, the Czech government tore up the agreement it had just signed with the "Russian Liberation Army" and betrayed the benefactor who extended a helping hand to them in times of crisis. On May 9, Soviet troops poured into Prague like a tide.After entering the city, the Soviet army defeated Vlasov's army and declared to the outside world that Prague had been "liberated". Since this history was written by the victorious Soviet Union, the real hero Vlasov was swept into the dustbin of history. As a result, Vlasov had to lead the "Russian Liberation Army" to flee to the west, which was their only way out. In June 1945, Vlasov led the "Russian Liberation Army" to surrender to the US military.However, according to the agreement signed by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin in Yalta on February 11, 1945, the US and British troops would unconditionally return captured Soviet citizens, especially Soviet prisoners wearing German uniforms, to the Soviet army. As a result, Vlasov and his men were sent back to the Soviet Union, which was great news for Stalin.Stalin tried to get rid of Vlasov and tried to find the assassin inside the "Russian Liberation Army", but failed.This time, the Americans sent Vlasov to their door. As a result, the Soviet military court convicted Vlasov of treason. On March 10, 1946, Vlasov and other leaders of the "Russian Liberation Army" were hanged. When mentioning Austria, people generally think of the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th century and the "Iron Curtain" between Austria and Hungary after World War II.Both reflect Austria's cultural particularity between Eastern and Western Europe, and Vienna is known as the "melting pot of European culture".Strolling the streets of Austrian cities, or walking into a bar in Vienna, people can discover this cultural feature of Austria if they discern carefully.In addition, the fact that 96% of Austria's population speaks German tells people that Austria and Germany are inextricably linked. After World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrated.At that time, Austria's large German population demanded that Austria join the German Empire, but this was prohibited in the Treaty of Versailles. In 1938, under the coercion of Hitler, Austria was incorporated into the territory of Germany and became part of the "German Third Reich".When the Nazi German army marched into Austria, it was warmly welcomed by the Austrian people. Everywhere it went was thunderous cheers and crowds of people. The war progressed to 1945, and the German army was gone.The Battle of Vienna began on March 16, 1945 and ended on April 15.In one month, the Soviet army defeated 32 divisions of the German army and its allies, captured more than 130,000 enemies, and liberated western Hungary and eastern Austria.The battle in Vienna was a fierce street battle. The Soviet army called on the citizens to stick to their posts to help the Soviet soldiers and prevent the German army from destroying the city. On April 13, the Soviet army captured Vienna after tenacious fighting. After Austria was captured by the Soviet army, it became part of the Soviet-occupied zone.Back then, the Soviet Union envisioned turning Austria into a pro-Soviet country like Hungary and the Czech Republic, but later gave up in negotiations with Western countries.After World War II, Austria, like Germany, was occupied by the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, and France. In May 1955, the four occupying powers signed a treaty with Austria, declaring respect for Austria's sovereignty and independence. In October, the occupation forces of the four countries withdrew and Austria regained its independence. On October 26, the Austrian National Assembly passed the permanent neutrality law, announcing that it would not participate in any military alliance and that foreign military bases were not allowed to be established on its territory. When countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Austria were liberated one after another, Nazi Germany was truly alone, and the end was approaching.