At the beginning of April 1945 it became apparent that the surrender of the Wehrmacht was only a matter of days or weeks. But despite this hopeless perspective, the German troops are still putting up fierce resistance to the enemy. Most soldiers at the front are no longer concerned with an already illusory final victory. Other goals now have priority. The way to the west must be kept open for refugee trains, civilians and wounded comrades must be allowed to evacuate by sea, or simply fight to free the way to the west for comrades. The great specter of the Eastern Front is being overrun by the Russians and then subjected to their reprisals.

Few of those who are interested know today that in order to achieve the goals mentioned, a sustained fight against the British and Americans was also necessary on the western front. In April, the game will be played for time, because every day that the Wehrmacht troops in the west delay capitulation, thousands, even tens of thousands, of people in the east save their lives. But Hitler is still alive and making his unrealistic decisions in Berlin. Defying his commands can quickly mean death these days.

In this situation, the metropolis of Hamburg prepared for “defense down to the last cartridge”. A disaster is looming. Due to a lack of troops, the Wehrmacht High Command resorted more and more to marines at the beginning of April, whose ships had sunk, been damaged or not due to a lack of fuel These men also include around 2,000 submarine men who were waiting in the metropolis on the Elbe for the completion or repair of their boats.So they no longer run out with their boats on enemy voyages, but are part of the naval tank hunt -Regiments 1 met the British with bazookas Led by a level-headed combat commander from Hamburg, they put up such measured resistance that enough time was gained to finally surrender Hamburg without a fight and by stopping the British on the Elbe, the Baltic Sea ports about 14 days longer open to refugees. This book is an exciting p piece of contemporary history that allows a somewhat different view of the events of that time. Follow the fight of the submarine men in the Harburg Mountains and on the Elbe, which has never been summarized to this day and which saved tens of thousands of lives.

192 pages

15 colored cards

157 images, 48 of them in color with the new information), over 30 colored maps, four color photos and colored documents.

English/German text