Click here for Part II...
Click here for Part IV...
More articles concerning World Events...
More articles concerning Politics...
Click here for Part IV...
William Shirer's focus here is on Germany's expansion of it's borders and influence in the mid to late 30's as Adolf Hitler's risky gambles fell into place, both militarily and politically...Whether his scheduling of the "Saturday surprises" was the result of his own analysis or not, it was brilliant but perilous strategy...As this unfolds, Shirer experiences both career and family changes...
In the first of Hitler's weekend whammies, on Saturday, March 16, 1935, he had propagandist Joseph Goebbels call a press conference where the diminutive stooge announced a virtual trashing of the Versailles Treaty as he proclaimed a re-armament of Germany, including a reinstatement of military conscription...It being a Saturday morning, the story would not reach the world's public until scrambling journalists could write and transmit their accounts to their newspaper editors who would see it in print on Sunday...Global government reaction would not follow until early that week...
The German public, however, was told about it as Goebbels read the proclamation to a cheering crowd of 12,000 at the Sportpalast that same evening...The next day was a German holiday, Heroes Memorial Day, in which Hitler received the adulation of a packed Opera House in Berlin as past and present military members were enthralled by the news...
Caught with their pants down, Britain did nothing in response, and France, which wouldn't let a champagne cork pop too loudly without British approval, sat on its hands, awaiting its turn to use the little nations' room...Hitler was a gambler for big stakes, and as such, he was very good at "reading the table," although this eventually fed his out-of-control ego to the point of recklessness...
He correctly timed many of his big moves when key members of the British government were away for the weekend, knowing that the slow communications of the day would not allow a prompt meeting to decide what reaction to take against the latest Nazi aggression...He also knew that the inept and cowardly leadership of France would make no decisive moves at all without the might of the English to back them up militarily...France was rife with brave, but latent warriors who would gladly rise to a fight, but allowed themselves to be led by frightened, indecisive bureaucrats fearful of raising a hand only to draw back a bloody nub...
Hitler further realized that American reaction would be delayed as news correspondents did not telephone their stories to Paris for relay to the US until late Saturday night, and important happenings might not see print until the following Monday, given time zone differences...By the time any major power could decide on a course of action, German forces would already have had 24 to 48 hours to become entrenched...
Two months earlier, following his somewhat unexpected overwhelming victory as Saarlanders voted to reunite with Germany, rather than maintaining their status as a League of Nations protectorate, or alternatively unifying with France, Hitler began making his plans for the next big plunge...The weekend timing of the Saar referendum, and its subsequent impact may have reinforced his preference of weekend actions...Nevertheless, his decision to defy the Treaty of Locarno, and occupy the de-militarized zone of the Rhineland was met with skepticism from the Reichswehr general staff...
Following the pattern of always being prepared to fight the previous war, the Reichswehr leadership was hesitant against any new thinking in military measures, preferring to react to a first strike rather than advance into non-reconnoitered territory...But Hitler had actually read General Heinz Guderian's book, "Achtung - Panzer!" and, having seen a demonstration of the power of fast-moving armor, wanted it for his military even though trained armored divisions did not yet exist...He determined to use the tactic as applied to infantry using whatever motorized conveyances could be had...
This rudimentary plan, combined with his theory of Saturday incursions, was ordered to take shape to a nervous and reluctant general staff...I am not sure to what degree Hitler saw the risk of failure being, but I am sure some of his staff saw the potential failure as a chance to rid themselves of a former corporal as a commander, and return to a comfortable normalcy...Nevertheless, being professional soldiers, they still put forth their best effort in planning Operation Winter Exercise...
As part of the plan, they also included provisions for a hasty "about face" on the off-hand chance the gutless French decided to mount a defense...The lightly armed German foot soldiers would likely have been forced into a retreat if faced with anything stronger than a troop of French Girl Scouts...At this point of Hitler's rearmament, the French military was a vastly superior force in terms of numbers, armament and mobility, but sadly lacking a willful and competent leadership to guide it...
Shirer said that from later studies of Nazi records, Hitler spent the weekend biting his nails to the quick over worry that his plan would fail...He understood perfectly that if his meager battalions had been forced into withdrawal, the humiliation he would face would be overwhelming, and he would have looked forward to resigning in disgrace as the world laughed in his face...Those first goose-steps over the bridges of the Rhine on Saturday, March 7, 1936, were met with open-mouthed wonder by the hausfraus doing their morning marketing...
The three lightly armed battalions were prepared under orders to turn tail and retreat at the first sign of a French soldier wearing a frown on his face...But no such French reaction was forthcoming, as not a shot was fired and the German troops took their places up and down the Rhineland without incident...Hitler's exhalation in relief must have been audible as he realized his bet had paid off...
Although the success did not necessarily guarantee future successes, it promised that Hitler's image in his own mind as a military genius would guarantee his overshadowing any future objections from his general staff...
If I had the same interest in history then as I did in comparing all 1,300 brands of German beer when I was stationed in the Rhineland during the 1960's, I might have paid closer attention to the area around Trier where the re-occupation took place...When I was there it was a bustling city of both old and new architecture nestled in a beautiful forested valley...
Three decades earlier it was a scene of apprehension and nervous hand-wringing...A decade after that, it became a battle area as Patton's Third Army retook the territory for the Allies...I won't speculate on how history will see it during its next occupation...
Germany's next muscle flexing occurred in July, 1936, as Hitler saw an opportunity to test his newly rearmed regime in the Spanish insurrection...He and Goring considered it a good battlefield test in which the benefits were tangible...Victory would put another Fascist nation at France's southern border, one which would then have a debt of honor to be called in at a later time...
The wily Franco was later more slippery to pin down when Hitler called the marker due, but still afforded the Nazis some relief in the form of sanctuary, and a buffer state...At the cost of only $215,000,000, and 300 German lives, the Third Reich leadership considered it a bargain...
Der Fuehrer next turned his aim on his home country of Austria, as his plans for the Anschluss began...At this same point, Shirer and his Austrian wife faced their own problems with the impending birth of their first child...The very difficult birth was compounded when her Jewish obstetrician was forced into hiding after the Caesarian delivery, unknowingly leaving some instruments unaccounted for in his hasty retreat...
Eventually she regained enough of her health to make a harrowing escape from Austria along with Shirer and the baby girl under pressure from Nazi officials who did not want her to leave without first obtaining a Nazi passport...This was a ruse to look for undeclared cash leaving the country...After satisfying themselves that she had no contraband even under her bloody bandages, they caught the last flight out to Switzerland...
Other hapless detainees were not as lucky as many thousands faced internment in the concentration camps as the Nazi hordes took possession of what Hitler now called "Greater Germany"...Austria's Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg held the line as long as possible even as he was ordered to renounce his position and allow the Nazi takeover under a personal browbeating from Adolf Hitler on yet another Saturday...
The brave Schuschnigg reacted by ordering a plebiscite to take place in which the Austrian people would decide whether to remain independent, or live under the thumb of a Nazi regime...A furious Hitler then gathered his troops to march across the border, at which point Schuschnigg cancelled the plebiscite and resigned...Schuschnigg's ultimate fate, and that of many other high-value prisoners, was covered in Stephen Harding's excellent book, "The Last Battle," which I reviewed here...
The German divisions (by now known as the Wehrmacht) paraded into Austria on Saturday, March 12, 1938, as British and French politicians wrung their hands in indecision while reading of it over their morning tea in the Monday newspapers...But the insane German dictator didn't leave much time for tear-shedding as he quickly turned his sights to the east, and Czechoslovakia...After seeing his family safely ensconced in Switzerland, Shirer proceeded to Prague to resume his duties for CBS...
Oddly enough, his boss William S. Paley, even after witnessing the wildly successful scoop which Shirer and Murrow pulled off in bringing on-the-spot coverage of the Nazi takeover of Austria, would not allow anything but regular scheduled news broadcasts from Europe, or even time-shifting by recording incidents for replay later...He insisted that all coverage be at pre-arranged times, or not at all...
During this time Shirer's wife and baby daughter traveled to America via Paris and England...There her efforts at naturalization were stonewalled (in those times, spouses of Americans were not automatically granted citizenship), and she faced a return to Nazi Austria without a Nazi passport, which was tantamount to being forced into a concentration camp...Fortunately her court appeals paid off, and she was sworn in as a citizen...
Czechoslovakia was especially disheartening for Shirer as he watched the gutless French follow the lead (it's hard to write that word with a straight face) of Britain's pasty-faced PM, Neville Chamberlain, as he signed away the fate of the only remaining East European democracy, then waved it about as a personal victory...The last chance for freedom in Europe was flushed away as Hitler and his band of brigands rushed in to seize their prize...Calling it a "bloodless victory" was ironic as millions of Slavs, Jews and gypsies lined up for their slaughter...
Drunk on power, and swimming in the blood of his victims, Hitler's greed lost all boundaries as he imprisoned or executed his enemies, while promising never to do it again...He even managed to hoodwink the normally suspicious and distrusting Joseph Stalin into signing the Soviet-German Nonaggression Pact, in the belief that the western allies would stop short of war against their combined forces...
But his winning streak came to a close as he dealt the hand certain to touch off global warfare...In his next section, Shirer tells of standing by helplessly as the fuse ignites on the conflict, and we will resume this review at that point...
In the first of Hitler's weekend whammies, on Saturday, March 16, 1935, he had propagandist Joseph Goebbels call a press conference where the diminutive stooge announced a virtual trashing of the Versailles Treaty as he proclaimed a re-armament of Germany, including a reinstatement of military conscription...It being a Saturday morning, the story would not reach the world's public until scrambling journalists could write and transmit their accounts to their newspaper editors who would see it in print on Sunday...Global government reaction would not follow until early that week...
The German public, however, was told about it as Goebbels read the proclamation to a cheering crowd of 12,000 at the Sportpalast that same evening...The next day was a German holiday, Heroes Memorial Day, in which Hitler received the adulation of a packed Opera House in Berlin as past and present military members were enthralled by the news...
Caught with their pants down, Britain did nothing in response, and France, which wouldn't let a champagne cork pop too loudly without British approval, sat on its hands, awaiting its turn to use the little nations' room...Hitler was a gambler for big stakes, and as such, he was very good at "reading the table," although this eventually fed his out-of-control ego to the point of recklessness...
He correctly timed many of his big moves when key members of the British government were away for the weekend, knowing that the slow communications of the day would not allow a prompt meeting to decide what reaction to take against the latest Nazi aggression...He also knew that the inept and cowardly leadership of France would make no decisive moves at all without the might of the English to back them up militarily...France was rife with brave, but latent warriors who would gladly rise to a fight, but allowed themselves to be led by frightened, indecisive bureaucrats fearful of raising a hand only to draw back a bloody nub...
Hitler further realized that American reaction would be delayed as news correspondents did not telephone their stories to Paris for relay to the US until late Saturday night, and important happenings might not see print until the following Monday, given time zone differences...By the time any major power could decide on a course of action, German forces would already have had 24 to 48 hours to become entrenched...
Two months earlier, following his somewhat unexpected overwhelming victory as Saarlanders voted to reunite with Germany, rather than maintaining their status as a League of Nations protectorate, or alternatively unifying with France, Hitler began making his plans for the next big plunge...The weekend timing of the Saar referendum, and its subsequent impact may have reinforced his preference of weekend actions...Nevertheless, his decision to defy the Treaty of Locarno, and occupy the de-militarized zone of the Rhineland was met with skepticism from the Reichswehr general staff...
Following the pattern of always being prepared to fight the previous war, the Reichswehr leadership was hesitant against any new thinking in military measures, preferring to react to a first strike rather than advance into non-reconnoitered territory...But Hitler had actually read General Heinz Guderian's book, "Achtung - Panzer!" and, having seen a demonstration of the power of fast-moving armor, wanted it for his military even though trained armored divisions did not yet exist...He determined to use the tactic as applied to infantry using whatever motorized conveyances could be had...
This rudimentary plan, combined with his theory of Saturday incursions, was ordered to take shape to a nervous and reluctant general staff...I am not sure to what degree Hitler saw the risk of failure being, but I am sure some of his staff saw the potential failure as a chance to rid themselves of a former corporal as a commander, and return to a comfortable normalcy...Nevertheless, being professional soldiers, they still put forth their best effort in planning Operation Winter Exercise...
As part of the plan, they also included provisions for a hasty "about face" on the off-hand chance the gutless French decided to mount a defense...The lightly armed German foot soldiers would likely have been forced into a retreat if faced with anything stronger than a troop of French Girl Scouts...At this point of Hitler's rearmament, the French military was a vastly superior force in terms of numbers, armament and mobility, but sadly lacking a willful and competent leadership to guide it...
Shirer said that from later studies of Nazi records, Hitler spent the weekend biting his nails to the quick over worry that his plan would fail...He understood perfectly that if his meager battalions had been forced into withdrawal, the humiliation he would face would be overwhelming, and he would have looked forward to resigning in disgrace as the world laughed in his face...Those first goose-steps over the bridges of the Rhine on Saturday, March 7, 1936, were met with open-mouthed wonder by the hausfraus doing their morning marketing...
The three lightly armed battalions were prepared under orders to turn tail and retreat at the first sign of a French soldier wearing a frown on his face...But no such French reaction was forthcoming, as not a shot was fired and the German troops took their places up and down the Rhineland without incident...Hitler's exhalation in relief must have been audible as he realized his bet had paid off...
Although the success did not necessarily guarantee future successes, it promised that Hitler's image in his own mind as a military genius would guarantee his overshadowing any future objections from his general staff...
If I had the same interest in history then as I did in comparing all 1,300 brands of German beer when I was stationed in the Rhineland during the 1960's, I might have paid closer attention to the area around Trier where the re-occupation took place...When I was there it was a bustling city of both old and new architecture nestled in a beautiful forested valley...
Three decades earlier it was a scene of apprehension and nervous hand-wringing...A decade after that, it became a battle area as Patton's Third Army retook the territory for the Allies...I won't speculate on how history will see it during its next occupation...
Germany's next muscle flexing occurred in July, 1936, as Hitler saw an opportunity to test his newly rearmed regime in the Spanish insurrection...He and Goring considered it a good battlefield test in which the benefits were tangible...Victory would put another Fascist nation at France's southern border, one which would then have a debt of honor to be called in at a later time...
The wily Franco was later more slippery to pin down when Hitler called the marker due, but still afforded the Nazis some relief in the form of sanctuary, and a buffer state...At the cost of only $215,000,000, and 300 German lives, the Third Reich leadership considered it a bargain...
Der Fuehrer next turned his aim on his home country of Austria, as his plans for the Anschluss began...At this same point, Shirer and his Austrian wife faced their own problems with the impending birth of their first child...The very difficult birth was compounded when her Jewish obstetrician was forced into hiding after the Caesarian delivery, unknowingly leaving some instruments unaccounted for in his hasty retreat...
Eventually she regained enough of her health to make a harrowing escape from Austria along with Shirer and the baby girl under pressure from Nazi officials who did not want her to leave without first obtaining a Nazi passport...This was a ruse to look for undeclared cash leaving the country...After satisfying themselves that she had no contraband even under her bloody bandages, they caught the last flight out to Switzerland...
Other hapless detainees were not as lucky as many thousands faced internment in the concentration camps as the Nazi hordes took possession of what Hitler now called "Greater Germany"...Austria's Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg held the line as long as possible even as he was ordered to renounce his position and allow the Nazi takeover under a personal browbeating from Adolf Hitler on yet another Saturday...
The brave Schuschnigg reacted by ordering a plebiscite to take place in which the Austrian people would decide whether to remain independent, or live under the thumb of a Nazi regime...A furious Hitler then gathered his troops to march across the border, at which point Schuschnigg cancelled the plebiscite and resigned...Schuschnigg's ultimate fate, and that of many other high-value prisoners, was covered in Stephen Harding's excellent book, "The Last Battle," which I reviewed here...
The German divisions (by now known as the Wehrmacht) paraded into Austria on Saturday, March 12, 1938, as British and French politicians wrung their hands in indecision while reading of it over their morning tea in the Monday newspapers...But the insane German dictator didn't leave much time for tear-shedding as he quickly turned his sights to the east, and Czechoslovakia...After seeing his family safely ensconced in Switzerland, Shirer proceeded to Prague to resume his duties for CBS...
Oddly enough, his boss William S. Paley, even after witnessing the wildly successful scoop which Shirer and Murrow pulled off in bringing on-the-spot coverage of the Nazi takeover of Austria, would not allow anything but regular scheduled news broadcasts from Europe, or even time-shifting by recording incidents for replay later...He insisted that all coverage be at pre-arranged times, or not at all...
During this time Shirer's wife and baby daughter traveled to America via Paris and England...There her efforts at naturalization were stonewalled (in those times, spouses of Americans were not automatically granted citizenship), and she faced a return to Nazi Austria without a Nazi passport, which was tantamount to being forced into a concentration camp...Fortunately her court appeals paid off, and she was sworn in as a citizen...
Czechoslovakia was especially disheartening for Shirer as he watched the gutless French follow the lead (it's hard to write that word with a straight face) of Britain's pasty-faced PM, Neville Chamberlain, as he signed away the fate of the only remaining East European democracy, then waved it about as a personal victory...The last chance for freedom in Europe was flushed away as Hitler and his band of brigands rushed in to seize their prize...Calling it a "bloodless victory" was ironic as millions of Slavs, Jews and gypsies lined up for their slaughter...
Drunk on power, and swimming in the blood of his victims, Hitler's greed lost all boundaries as he imprisoned or executed his enemies, while promising never to do it again...He even managed to hoodwink the normally suspicious and distrusting Joseph Stalin into signing the Soviet-German Nonaggression Pact, in the belief that the western allies would stop short of war against their combined forces...
But his winning streak came to a close as he dealt the hand certain to touch off global warfare...In his next section, Shirer tells of standing by helplessly as the fuse ignites on the conflict, and we will resume this review at that point...
More articles with Book Reviews...
More articles concerning World Events...
More articles concerning Politics...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments and critiques are always welcome, and will be reviewed before publication...They will not be seen immediately...Keep it clean please...