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In a sharp exchange of memos with his British allies, Ike argued that military targets were paramount, and Berlin was no longer important: the Wehrmacht had not, as expected, fallen back about the city. "The place has become nothing but a geographical location," he wrote Monty, "and I have never been interested in these. My purpose is to destroy the enemy's forces and his powers to resist." Eisenhower proposed to wait for the Russians along the Elbe while Monty moved north toward Denmark and the Baltic seaports and Lieut. General Omar Bradley's central group of armies fanned out across Southern Germany.*
Full Support. Since Churchill seemed so "greatly disappointed and disturbed" about his strategy, Ike wrote to Washington that if political estimates were to outweigh military factors, "I would cheerfully readjust my plans." But Ike had the full support of the U.S. Chiefs of Staff, who told the British that "the commander in the field was the best judge" of the army's mission. Washington also shared his judgment on the relative importance of political and military factors. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall wrote to Ike: "Personally, I would be loath to hazard American lives for purely political purposes."
To the end, Ike agreed that "if I get an opportunity to capture Berlin cheaply, I will take it." But the price did not seem right, especially since there was a war with Japan still to be won. Before his armies reached the Elbe, Ike had asked Bradley for an estimate of what it would cost to take Berlin. Pointing out that U.S. troops would have to cross miles of easily defendable rivers, lakes and canals, Bradley guessed that an attack would cost 100,000 casualties. Thus, when Simpson's spearheads reached Magdeburg, Ike and Bradley saw no point in risking the Ninth Army (whose supply lines were already extended to the danger point) in a possibly disastrous attack on Berlin. So much bloodshed, Bradley told Ike, "was a pretty stiff price to pay for a prestige objective, especially when we've got to fall back and let the other fellow take over."
The "other fellow" was the Soviet Union. By agreement of the Allies, the land in what is now East Germany was to be occupied by Soviet troops after the cessation of hostilities, even though much of it was actually to be conquered by Western troops.
The decision to create occupation zones was a political one, over which Supreme Commander Eisenhower had little control.
In September 1944 the European Advisory Commission—composed of British, U.S. and Russian representatives—signed a protocol that laid out three (a fourth, for the French, was added at Yalta) separate occupation zones for postwar Germany, plus a special Allied joint authority for greater Berlin. At the suggestion of the British—who were eager to control the industrial cities in West Germany—the Soviet Union was granted the largest but least populous zone, including all territory surrounding Berlin itself. Barring a presidential decision to break the agreement—and Harry Truman refused to do that—Ike had no choice but to withdraw his troops from the Soviet zone when hostilities ceased.