Eisenhower's Drive on Berlin Halted by Duty

By the end of March 1945, the European phase of the Second World War was close to an end. The Soviet armies were thirty miles east of Berlin and encountering fierce resistance on their way to Germanyâ??s capital. General Eisenhowerâ??s armies were about 200 miles west of Berlin, but encountering light resistance as they rapidly advanced eastward.

 

Eisenhower was advised to strike toward Berlin. Winston Churchill sent the Supreme Commander cables urging him to order his 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Montgomery to attack and capture the capital city. General George Patton believed Montyâ??s forces could get to Berlin in less than three days and implored his friend Ike to order the attack. Instead, in mid-April, Ike ordered his allied armies to halt all eastward movement at the Elbe river line leaving the 21st Army Group about 70 miles from Berlin, and then to move both south into Czechoslovakia and north to the Baltic Sea to eliminate remaining elements of the Wehrmacht.

 

Many allied leaders â?? including his own 9th Army commander General William Hood Simpson, whose forces were poised to attack the city if Ike would give them the order â?? bitterly criticized Eisenhower for this decision. To this day, some military and political historians characterize this order as Dwight Eisenhowerâ??s major command failure of World War II. Why did he halt instead of attack? Their critiques deserve an answer: Why did Ike halt the Allied advance at the Elbe?

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