How were the Allied soldiers (non Russians) treated by the civilians as they made their way across Germany toward Berlin? Were they treated as liberators of a sort, as conquerers, or something else?
The German people were defeated in every sense of the word, but toward the end of the war I don’t think they were nearly as supportive of the Nazi regime as they may have been in the beginning…
I wasn’t there so not a first hand account, but have read a lot on the subject. From my understanding the Allied troops and especially the Americans were treated very well. The Americans because we were kind to the civilian population, handing out food and medical treatments when possible.
That is one amazing thing about the American soldier. For the most part he fights like a tiger, but once he has won the battle he tended to show compasion and mercy to his enemy, even more so to the civilian population. The Russians on the other hand were brutal by all accounts. Rape being one of the “spoils of war” that the Russians felt entitled to. But then again, look how Russia treats its own people, any wonder why they were so brutal to the people of conquered lands?
many cities and towns surrendered under civilian auspices to advancing anglo-saxon forces without resistance. however, this was not necessarily the case in all german cities. the ruhr pocket (where the remnant of field marchal von kluge’s army group west) held out nearly till the end of the war in europe. i’m pretty sure there was a lot of anti-american sentiments in bombed out cities like dresden and the industrialized areas.
but for many parts (most notably heidelberg) the towns held no strategic advantage as bombing targets nor was there need for heavy fighting. the german population was accomodating to the western forces. the british and americans were also looking to garrison several german regions so it was in their interest to maintain good public relations.
there’s a legend that the american officer in charge of relieving heidelberg of its german garrison requested his superiors to allow him to use only light weapons and small arms. the reason being he was a graduate of the university. i was not able to substantiate that. it was our late father who told us as kids. the more likely expanation is that many german cities held no military importance that merited use of heavy weapons.
I’ve read that the Americans would simply telephone the next town down the road and ask for the Mayor. They would do the “We can do this the easy way or the hard way” thing. I would suspect that most German citizens would appreciate having been given the choice, rather than simply being shelled into submission.
And also, look how the Germans behaved on their way into the USSR - including, foolishly, a great many Slavic people who were only too happy to see their Russian masters get a bloody nose. Four years later, and it’s payback time, a lot of them are going to be thinking.
The important difference is that to Americans the war with Hitler wasn’t really that personal. Russian were entering Germany after 3-4 years of extremely brutal occupation of their own country.
FWIW, my dad was with the 8th Infantry Division near Munich in the mid-Fifties, and said the Germans couldn’t have been nicer to him and his buddies.
My Dad was in an engineer unit with the 2nd when it slogged through the Ruhr, and I can remember stories of it both ways, he got a Bronze Star in one particularly heated battle [he was one of the schlubs tasked with getting the mine off the bridge,] and out on a later foraging run he came back with a jeep and trailer full of food, and a heck of a selection of German weapons and followed by a trail of surrendered German troops. He said at one point in time he would be visiting farms to trade for fresh foods, and there would be little clumps of troops surrendering to get popped into the camps the army had set up so they could get fed and not shot. The American troops tended to be sort of puzzled but preferred them to surrender instead of hide and shoot at them. I have a p.08 and a sig 38h out of the deal. Actually my brother and I grew up playing with looted stuff, a couple helmets, entrenching tools, belt knives, mess kit - stuff like that. My brother got the stg44 and a very nice belt knife when we divided up some of my Dad’s stuff after he died a couple years ago. [He was buried using one of his ww2 field jackets as the coffin pillow. Nobody else knew, he requested a closed casket funeral.]
^
maybe you mean walther P-38.
well done letting your father keep his field jacket.
That is certainly what the people of My Lai and Al-Mahmudiyah say about him.
The company now is Sig Sauer
It was actually my idea - it hadn’t fit him for decades 
but it was still in his closet, so obviously it meant a hell of a lot to him.
Its never a good idea to believe ones own press releases. And the Soviets did in fact supply relief goods to Berlin and East Germany contrary to popular opinion.
The substance of what obbn posted is correct, snide comments about press releases notwithstanding. The Soviet invasion of Germany (and of German-held Soviet territory) was brutal.