By mid April all prospects of effective German resistance had gone. In the east the bloodthirsty Russian hordes held Vienna and stood on the Oder River, only fifty miles from Berlin. In the west, the Allied advance was reaching the Elbe River. It seemed that Germany would be cut in two. The death of President Roosevelt on 12th April encouraged Hitler to believe that a political miracle might yet save him, but even he could no longer hope for a military miracle. On 15th April he issued two Orders, one reorganising the command organisation in case Germany was cut in two (No. 73); the other (No. 74), an Order Of The Day sent to the Army Groups in the east with instructions to pass it down at once to company level. It was to be published in the Army newspaper but not in public newspapers.