ABSTRACT
At the time the Allied invasion of Austria began, in early April 1945, one half of Germany was already in Allied hands and the Battle of Berlin was about to begin. Austria was to be invaded from the east (by the Soviets), from the north-west (by the Americans), from the west (by the Americans and the French), and from the south (by the British and the Yugoslavs). The first and overwhelming pressure came from the east, which eased the task of the Americans, but there was to be some stiff resistance in Oberdonau. To the west, in the Tyrol, and to the south, in Carinthia, the fighting was relatively insignificant. It is a tribute to the Soviet and US forces in Austria that the Wehrmacht never had the chance, or the will, to withdraw to the 'Kernfestung Alpen', the ultimate Alpine redoubt of Nazi Germany which, on Hitler's orders, was to be so well provisioned that it could accommodate all three of the German fronts capable of reaching it: OB Southwest (Italy), defended by Army Group C, OB Southeast (Balkans), defended by Army Group E, and OB West (whose Army Group G alone could attain it). 1 The vast Alpine fortress extended from Füsse in Bavaria to Dravograd in Slovenia, and from Steyr in Oberdonau to Riva (southwest of Trento) in Italy, leaving Vienna and Linz outside, but an outer wall to protect Vienna was established in the east from Trieste on the Adriatic to Breslau in Poland.
